All posts tagged: Wijk

Indian GMs’ struggles at Wijk aan Zee: 3 wins in 33 games between Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Aravindh Chitambaram | Chess News

Indian GMs’ struggles at Wijk aan Zee: 3 wins in 33 games between Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Aravindh Chitambaram | Chess News

Published by Webster

3 min readUpdated: Jan 31, 2026 12:26 PM IST India’s top chess players endured another wretched day at the office in Round 11 of the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee with Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi suffering defeats and world champion D Gukesh being held to a draw by Aravindh Chitambaram after having a significant edge in the game. Pragg lost to German grandmaster Vincent Keymer while Arjun was beaten by World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov. Friday’s results meant that between the three of them, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun and Aravindh have had three wins in 33 classical games at Wijk aan Zee, with two of those wins coming over Indian players itself. Meanwhile, despite all the scrutiny of his results as the world champion, Gukesh has racked up three wins in his 11 rounds. The world champion may have lost three games at Wijk, but he’s the top ranked Indian player in the Tata Steel masters standings with 5.5 points. With two more rounds left Praggnanandhaa (4.5 points), Arjun (4 points) and Aravindh (4 …

‘I wanted to teach him some lessons’: Gukesh jokes after beating 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Ergodmus in Wijk aan Zee thriller | Chess News

‘I wanted to teach him some lessons’: Gukesh jokes after beating 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Ergodmus in Wijk aan Zee thriller | Chess News

Published by Webster

4 min readUpdated: Jan 29, 2026 01:22 AM IST World champion Gukesh Dommaraju reduced Yagiz Kaan Ergodmus to tears on the way to defeating the 14-year-old prodigy in Round 10 of the Tata Steel Chess tournament. Before Wednesday, Erdogmus was having the tournament of his life at Wijk aan Zee, beating the likes of Arjun Erigaisi, Jorden Van Foreest and Thai Dai Van Nguyen besides holding some of the strongest stars of the current generation like Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Aravindh Chithambaram, Hans Niemann, Vincent Keymer and Praggnanandhaa R to draws. Gukesh, on the other hand, had accumulated three defeats in nine rounds coming into Wednesday’s game. The world champion had experienced suffering at Wijk over nine rounds: he had Javokhir Sindarov on the ropes before letting him escape with a draw in round 1; he made a jaw-dropping, game-ending blunder against Abdusattorov in round 6 that he had plenty of difficulty moving on from, and then lost two more games to Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum. Unlike his usual calm self, he was even so irked …

Matthias Bluebaum takes down Gukesh to hand world champion third defeat at Wijk aan Zee | Chess News

Matthias Bluebaum takes down Gukesh to hand world champion third defeat at Wijk aan Zee | Chess News

Published by Webster

On Monday, which was the second rest day of the Tata Steel Chess tournament, German grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum found himself unable to shake off the feeling that he will never win a chess game again. Bluebaum, who stunned the world of chess by securing a spot at the upcoming Candidates tournament, had played out four draws in a row at Wijk aan Zee heading into Monday’s rest day. His eight games at Wijk had brought him just one victory. So the feeling was understandable. “But now it feels better again,” grinned Bluebaum on Tuesday as he joined the Chess24 broadcast after defeating world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in round 9 of the Tata Steel Chess tournament. It was a game where the Indian teenager got an inferior position out of the opening and was never able to claw his way back to parity before eventually resigning in 37 moves. For the teenage world champion who will defend his world championship crown later this year, this was the third defeat at the tournament in nine rounds, with …

‘Shit happens’: World champion Gukesh on ‘unexplainable’ blunder that left him inconsolable at Wijk aan Zee | Chess News

‘Shit happens’: World champion Gukesh on ‘unexplainable’ blunder that left him inconsolable at Wijk aan Zee | Chess News

Published by Webster

“Shit happens” That was world champion Gukesh’s frank assessment about his stunning blunder two rounds ago in the game against arch-rival Nodirbek Abdusattorov at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The blunder, in an equalish position, meant that Gukesh would immediately lose a pawn and then a rook, and would be likely checkmated later on in the game. Gukesh had resigned from the game soon afterwards, and had also lost to Anish Giri the next day before finally bouncing back with a victory over Vladimir Fedoseev with black pieces on Sunday in round 8. Gukesh had seemed inconsolable in the aftermath of the result against Abdusattorov, spending five minutes at the table speechless even as the Uzbekistan grandmaster tried to engage him in conversation and analyse the game. Later, Gukesh had walked into the press room at the tournament venue where he had spent another 10 to 15 minutes in silence with his face turned away from the world as he tried to come to terms with the blunder. World Champion Gukesh …

Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee: Gukesh Dommaraju registers first win in Round 5

Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee: Gukesh Dommaraju registers first win in Round 5

Published by Webster

The reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju finally registered his first win of the 2026 Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, beating Thai Dai Van Nguyen in the fifth round on Wednesday. In a battle which lasted 51 moves, Gukesh capitalised on a blunder from his opponent to climb up to 3 points in five rounds. Gukesh, who had finished runner-up last year in the tournament, had started his campaign with four successive draws in the tournament. He had played out a draw apiece with Javokhir Sindarov, Jorden van Foreest, Arjun Erigaisi, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. While Gukesh registered an important victory in the fifth round, Praggnanandhaa’s winless run extended further. Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw with the white pieces in the fifth round by home favourite Anish Giri. The Indian now has drawn three straight games after starting off his campaign with two successive loses against Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Meanwhile, Erigaisi fell to his first loss of the tournament in the fifth round as he went down to Vladimir Fedoseev with the white …

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

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

Published by Webster

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. In the previous rounds at the Tata Steel chess tournament, Arjun Erigaisi lost to veteran Indian star Pentala Harikrishna in round 1 while being …