It is fitting that a day which started with Gukesh playing against Arjun Erigaisi, ended with Gukesh facing Praggnanandhaa. It was a showcase of India's golden generation in chess.

Written by Amit Kamath
Updated: February 2, 2025 21:44 IST

Gukesh lost his final round game to Arjun Erigaisi before losing in the tiebreak to Praggnanandhaa. (PHOTO: YouTube/Chess24)

Gukesh Dommaraju experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on Sunday. The 18-year-old started Sunday by tasting his first defeat as world champion, losing to Chess Olympiad teammate Arjun Erigaisi in the final round of the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. But three hours after that defeat, Praggnanandhaa lost after a six-hour grind against Gukesh’s World Championship second Vincent Keymer in their own clash.

Praggnanandhaa’s defeat meant that the champion of the 2025 edition of Tata Steel chess tournament would have to be decided in tiebreaks. There in the tiebreaks, it took three games for Pragg to snatch the title away from Gukesh’s hands after the world champion lost the sudden death game on time. The best-of-two rapid tiebreak started in the best way possible for Gukesh: Pragg blundered a rook to hand him a win with white pieces in the first game. But then, he defeated Gukesh to force the matter into sudden death! In the sudden death game, Gukesh was outplayed as he lost on time.

There is a quote from Bent Larsen, one of the strongest grandmasters from the Bobby Fischer era, inscribed on the wall at the playing hall in Wijk aan Zee. It reads: “Normal people have to see Naples before they die… but a chess grandmaster has to win Wijk aan Zee first.” In its 87-year-long history, the Tata Steel chess tournament counts among its winners former world champions like Magnus Carlsen (a record eight times), Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Anatoly Karpov, Mikhail Tal, Mikhail Botvinnik, Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian and Max Euwe.

Gukesh’s bid to join that list was halted by his compatriots from India’s golden generation: Erigaisi in the 13th game, and then Pragg in the tiebreaks.

On a dramatic day in Wijk aan Zee, just when the reigning world champion resigned against Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, playing with black pieces, found himself under massive pressure in his own game against Keymer. Pragg laboured for three more hours since that point to save the game: Gukesh’s loss meant he needed just a draw to win the title.

INTERACTIVE: Praggnanandhaa versus Vincent Keymer

Coming into the final round, both Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa were tied on 8.5 points at the top of the masters standings with Nodirbek Abdusattarov one point behind. Abdusattarov was held to a draw by the other second from Team Gukesh, Pentala Harikkrishna, who had helped Gukesh become the youngest world champion in history in December.

Before Sunday, Gukesh had been undefeated in the Tata Steel chess tournament for 12 games, in what is his first tournament since becoming the 18th world champion in chess history by defeating Ding Liren in Singapore.

Erigaisi has had a wretched tournament in Wijk aan Zee so far, having not managed a win in 11 games of the tournament to languish in last spot. But he found second wind against Abdusattarov in round 12 on Saturday to win his first game of 2025. And now, his win over Gukesh ensures that good friend Praggnanandhaa has a great chance to win the prestigious title.

INTERACTIVE: How Arjun Erigaisi defeated Gukesh

Playing with black pieces, Erigaisi took down the world champion in just 31 moves, after piling on pressure on the h file from the start.

How Arjun Erigaisi navigated out of Gukesh’s trap

But the youngest world champion in history is starting to gain a reputation for never throwing in the towel. He planted a landmine with his 28th move where he threw a check on Erigaisi’s king with his rook (28. Rxc3+?!).

At this stage, Erigisi had a choice. He could have moved his king to b8 or d8. The more natural move would have been to shift it to b8 since there was a posse of three pawns parked in front of that square to provide protection. Instead, Erigisi played 28… Kd8 which prevented Gukesh from turning around the whole game in the span of four moves. What was remarkable was that Erigaisi played the move with just 17 seconds of thought behind it despite him having 21 minutes on the clock as compared to the world champion, who had just 3.50 seconds to make 12 moves.

On the Chess.com commentary, grandmaster David Howell explained why the move was critical and what trap Erigaisi had spotted: If Erigisi had played 28… Kb8 instead of what he played, Gukesh would have moved his pawn ahead a square on the g file (29.g4) which threatened to capture Erigaisi’s queen. When Erigaisi moved the queen out of harm’s way, Gukesh could have shifted his queen a square ahead to g3, thus giving a check to the black king. Erigaisi would have move his king to the a8 square at this point. If he done so, the world champion would have captured the pawn on a7 with his rook. Erigaisi would have no option but to retake a7 with his king. Now, Gukesh would simply move his other rook which was on c3 sideways to a3 to deliver a checkmate.

But somehow, Erigaisi had an inkling of the trap that his king would have walked into and moved it to the other side.

Erigaisi had lost around 34 rating points in his first 11 games at Wijk aan Zee thanks to four defeats and seven draws. To put that into context, Erigaisi had broken into the 2800-rating club last year after earning 63 points over the course of 2024. And then in 11 games at Tata Steel, he lost over half of those gains made over a year.

But then, just as the calendar turned from January to February, the country’s top-ranked chess player flicked a stitch and turned around his fortunes, defeating Abdusattarov and the world champion in two games.

It is fitting that a day which started with Gukesh playing against Erigaisi ended with Gukesh facing Praggnanandhaa.