Arjun Erigaisi handed Gukesh his first defeat as the world champion in the final game of the Tata Steel chess tournament. The fate of the tournament now hangs in balance with Praggnanandhaa still facing Gukesh’s World Championship second Vincent Keymer in their own game.
Just when Gukesh resigned against Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, playing with black pieces, was under massive pressure in his own game.
Despite the defeat to Erigaisi, all hope is not lost for the 18-year-old Gukesh. With 44 moves played, Pragg is under considerable pressure against Keymer and could lose! If Pragg loses as well, the tournament winner will have to be decided via a tiebreaker.
READ MORE: IF Gukesh and Pragg end up tied on points after Round 13, how will the winner be decided? Tata Steel chess tiebreaker rules explained
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, meanwhile, was held to a draw by the other second from Team Gukesh, Pentala Harikkrishna, who had helped him become the youngest world champion in history in December. The draw means that for the third year running, the Uzbek grandmaster will not win the Tata Steel masters despite coming within touching distance of it.
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
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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. By the time the end came, Gukesh was clutching at straws.
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.
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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 Gukesh in two games.
