Arjun Erigaisi loses to Praggnanandhaa to stay winless at Wijk aan Zee since 2022

The end came by checkmate with Arjun Erigaisi's king standing in the middle of the board while Praggnanandhaa's pieces surrounded it.

By: Sports Desk January 20, 2025 21:48 IST

Arjun Erigaisi takes on Praggnanandhaa in the third round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee. (PHOTO: Tata Steel Chess via Jurriaan Hoefsmit)

Arjun Erigaisi was handed defeat in the third round of the Tata Steel chess tournament by good friend Praggnanandhaa in 60 moves. While Pragg held the upper hand in most of the game, the end came with checkmate being inevitable with Arjun Erigaisi’s king standing in the middle of the board without any protection while Praggnanandhaa’s pieces surrounded it.

The defeat means that Arjun Erigaisi has not won a single game at the Tata Steel event since winning the Challengers section in 2022 with a jaw-dropping score of 10.5 out of 13. He had in fact won the event that year with a round to spare.

That win had secured Arjun Erigaisi a spot in the Tata Steel Masters section the next year. But he went through the 2023 edition without a single victory and has continued that streak in 2025. He did not play at Wijk aan Zee last year.

Gukesh and Caruana play draw

In other games involving Indians, Gukesh managed to play out a draw against World No 2 Fabiano Caruana while youngster Leon Luke Mendonca held the veteran Pentala Harikrishna to a draw.

The result means that Gukesh is still unbeaten since becoming world champion.

Subscribe to Sandeep Dwivedi’s weekly sports newsletter In the challengers section, Divya Deshmukh lost to Aydin Suleymanli while Vaishali lost to Kazakhstan’s Kazybek Nogerbek.

Tata Steel Masters 2025 round-3_2025.01.20

You can find the official website of the Tata Steel Masters 2025 here and results here

			Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Total
1		Praggnanandhaa R	2741		½							1					1	2.5
2		Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	2768	½									1			1		2.5
3		Gukesh D	2777				½			½					1			2.0
4		Caruana, Fabiano	2803			½			½					1				2.0
5		Keymer, Vincent	2733						½				½			1		2.0
6		Wei, Yi	2751				½	½			½							1.5
7		Fedoseev, Vladimir	2717			½								½	½			1.5
8		Sarana, Alexey	2677						½				½	½				1.5
9		Harikrishna, Pentala	2695	0												½	1	1.5
10		Warmerdam, Max	2646		0			½			½							1.0
11		Van Foreest, Jorden	2680				0			½	½							1.0
12		Giri, Anish	2731			0				½							½	1.0
13		Mendonca, Leon Luke	2639		0			0				½						0.5
14		Erigaisi Arjun	2801	0								0			½			0.5