Despite beating reigning world champion D Gukesh in the blitz tie-breaks to to win the prestigious Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, R Praggnanandhaa will not be in action in the opening event of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Germany.

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa won the Tata Steel Masters 2025, beating world champion D Gukesh in a thrilling tiebreak in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands on Sunday, February 2.

Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa achieved a remarkable comeback to defeat world champion D Gukesh 2-1 in the tiebreaker at Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025, claiming his maiden title. Despite initially losing due to a blunder,

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, who defeated world champion D Gukesh in tiebreakers to win Tata Steel Chess 2025, received praise from all corners of social media, including from chess legends Susan and Judit Polgar and Indian businessman Gautam Adani.

Despite the loss, Praggnanandhaa will play tie-break games of shorter duration against Gukesh after the two ended with identical 8.5 points each. The other contender Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan was denied the full point by P Harikrishna, who played a hard fought draw.

The 19-year-old from Chennai on Sunday defeated reigning World Champion and compatriot D Gukesh to claim his maiden Tata Steel Chess tournament crown, marking the biggest win of his career so far

Arjun Erigaisi is the current World No. 5 and India No. 2 with 2776.7 ratings. He ended 2024 as India. 1 but his poor campaign saw him lose that spot to Gukesh.

R Praggnanandhaa triumphed over world champion D Gukesh 2-1 in a thrilling tiebreaker to win the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament, despite both players facing surprising losses in the final round.