Tata Steel 2025 R1: Gukesh wins his first game after becoming World Champion, Harikrishna outplays Arjun
D Gukesh landed in Amsterdam at about 9 a.m. He had his first game after becoming World Champion against Anish Giri (NED), the winner of the 85th edition, in the first round at 2 p.m. The World Champion and 45th Olympiad double Gold medalist, complicated things when he realized that his opponent was blitzing out his moves. Soon Gukesh landed in a losing position. However, he persevered. In the end, it was his opponent who made the final mistake and Gukesh won the game. Arjun Erigaisi also wanted to complicate things against Pentala Harikrishna. However, Harikrishna spotted a nice tactic which brought him to an endgame where only he can push for a win. R Praggnanandhaa had a hard-fought draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB). GM R Vaishali made a winning start against the youngest player of the event, IM Faustino Oro (ARG). Round 2 starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST for both Masters and Challengers section. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025
Team Gukesh wins three
"It was really good to get back to chess. Last few weeks I had a lot of things to do back home. So it's really good to come here and just focus on chess." - D Gukesh on winning his first game after becoming the 18th World Champion. "First of all, I am very grateful for the Khel Ratna award. For any Indian athlete it's a dream come true. So, it was really nice and yeah I just landed in Amsterdam like 9 a.m. and I had to play the round at 2 p.m. It was a new experience. It went well." - Gukesh on receiving Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award on 17th and playing his first round game on 18th.
"I prepared a bit in Delhi after I received the Khel Ratna award because I had like couple of hours to the airport. Then I did some more after reaching here. It was good that I slept well in the flight. I did not feel too tired but around the end, I started feeling a bit sleepy already." - The world champion on the hours he spent before the game.
Gukesh - Giri: 1-0
Anish Giri (NED, 2731) was blitzing out everything till 12...Bc5, so D Gukesh (2777) thought that he was in his preparation. He saw that 14.Bh4 exists and it was getting things complicated. He also felt that it was too artificial to be true and too interesting not to try. He admitted spending 40 minutes to calculate
14...g5 15.Nxg5 hxg5 16.Bxg5 Gukesh thought that he always had some counterplay 16...e5 and his first intention was to play 17.Nd5 but then his opponent could go Nd4 18.Qd2 Be7 19.Nxe7+ Qxe7 20.Bh4 Kh7 21.Qg5 Rc6 22.f4 Rg8 23.Qxe5 Qxe5 24.fxe5 Ng4 and Black would do well at the end of the variation which was calculated by both players.
White felt that he was lost after 24...Rc2 25.Qf4 Nxd5 26.Qf3 here Black missed Rxg2 27.Qxg2 Nge3 28.Qf3 Nxf1 29.exd5 Ne3 would have been winning for Black.
33.h3?? presented the final opportunity for Black 33...Be4! 34.Rxf2 Nxf2+ 35.Kg1 Ng4! is what both players missed. Instead, he blundered 35...Qb6?? 36.Qf6+ and now White is winning.
Harikrishna - Arjun: 1-0
Pentala Harikrishna (2695) and Arjun Erigaisi (2801) played only two Classical rated games against each other before this battle. Both games ended decisively. The score was level 1-1. They both were part of the Gold medal winning Indian team at the 45th Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary last year. This was the first time, Harikrishna faced Arjun after the latter became World no.4.
White felt that Black should have exchanged the queens here 15...Qxd6 16.Rxd6 and the position is around equal. 16...Bxc3 17.bxc3 going into an opposite color bishop endgame with double rooks on each side was also a viable option for Black. The game continued 15...Qe8 16.Rd2 Rc8 here White felt that his opponent missed 17.Bd4 Rd8 18.Qxd8 idea. 18...Qxd8 19.Bxg7 Qe8 20.Bxf8 e3 21.fxe3 Kxf8 22.Re1 it is White who can play for a win here.
Harikrishna finished the game with a nice tactic 57.h4! It's over for Black as there is no way to continue the fight. White won the game in six more moves.
Leon - Keymer
If Leon Luke Mendonca (2639) played 26.c6 here, the game could have ended differently. Instead, he went for the f5-pawn 26.Rxf5 Qg4 27.Rf2 h5 28.h3 Qg3 29.c6 the effect of the protected passed pawn is no longer the same Kh7 30.Qc5 Rg6 31.Rc1?? Qxh3 and Vincent Keymer (GER, 2733) won.
Challengers: Vaishali makes a winning start
GM R Vaishali (2476) defeated the youngest player of this edition, combining Masters and Challengers, 11-year-old IM Faustino Oro (ARG, 2447).
Vaishali traded her knight for three pawns 12...b4 13.exf6 Nxf6 14.Nb5 and she was not sure where to put her c8-bishop. She spent a lot of time and played 14...Bd7 15.Nbd4 Rc8. Despite having low time for the better part of the game, Vaishali used her extra pawns well to win the game.
Schedule
Starting from Saturday 18th January to 2nd February, all round starts at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Rest days are same for both Masters and Challengers section - 23rd, 27th and 30th January 2025.
Replay Live stream
Replay Round 1 Masters games
Replay Round 1 Challengers games
Round 1 results
Masters
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | 2801 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | GM | Giri, Anish | 2731 | 8 | ||
| 2 | 9 | 2717 | GM | Fedoseev, Vladimir | GM | Gukesh, D | 2777 | 7 | ||
| 3 | 10 | 2803 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2680 | 6 | ||
| 4 | 11 | 2677 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | GM | Wei, Yi | 2751 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 12 | 2733 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | GM | Warmerdam, Max | 2646 | 4 | ||
| 6 | 13 | 2768 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | 2639 | 3 | ||
| 7 | 1 | 2695 | GM | Harikrishna, Pentala | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2741 | 2 |
Challengers
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | 2659 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | GM | Nogerbek, Kazybek | 2514 | 8 | ||
| 2 | 9 | 2476 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IM | Lu, Miaoyi | 2429 | 7 | ||
| 3 | 10 | 2664 | GM | Svane, Frederik | IM | Oro, Faustino | 2447 | 6 | ||
| 4 | 11 | 2386 | IM | Bulmaga, Irina | GM | L'Ami, Erwin | 2614 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 12 | 2583 | GM | Bok, Benjamin | GM | Gurel, Ediz | 2624 | 4 | ||
| 6 | 13 | 2474 | IM | Pijpers, Arthur | GM | Suleymanli, Aydin | 2623 | 3 | ||
| 7 | 1 | 2490 | IM | Divya, Deshmukh | GM | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | 2668 | 2 |
Time Control
100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first move.
Links
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Tata Steel 2025 R2: Praggnanandhaa scores as Harikrishna falters in the endgame, Gukesh draws
@ 20/01/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Anish Giri will face D Gukesh in the first round of 87th Tata Steel Chess 2025
@ 18/01/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |