R Praggnanandhaa defeated world champions D Gukesh in a nervy tie-breaker to win his maiden Tata Steel Masters 2025 Title in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Gukesh, who became the youngest world champion last year,

The teenager became the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the title. Anand won it thrice (2003, 2004 and 2006) individually when it was called the Corus Chess Tournament,

In the tie-breaker between two Chennai players played in the blitz format, Pragg was the underdog because of exhaustion.

In the second game, Gukesh had a fine position but was gradually outplayed. In the third game, the decider, Praggnanandhaa was again on the defensive with his white pieces but then found some nice moves and Gukesh got overambitious in a position that would have been a draw otherwise.

Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa didn't envisage such a "crazy day" with eight hours of world-class performance after which he pipped reigning World Champion D Gukesh to win his maiden Tata Steel Chess Tournament.

Gukesh Dommaraju ascended to World No. 3 after drawing against reigning champion Wei Yi at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025. Rameshbabu Praggnanan

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 World Champion D Gukesh faced a tough contest against Grandmaster R Pragnanandhaa in the Tata Steel Masters 2025 Chess final held at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The event was between two Indian stars, which ended with same points after 13 rounds. Pragnanandhaa needed a draw to clinch the title, which he successfully did.

Gukesh’s first loss as world champion was followed by Pragg’s defeat, leaving both tied at the top. Pragg won the tiebreaker against Gukesh to clinch title