Tata Steel Chess 2026: Gukesh capitalises on a blunder to beat Van Nguyen as Praggnanandhaa remains winless

Reigning world champion D Gukesh collected his first victory of the 2026 Tata Steel Chess at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands after four consecutive draws, grinding it out against Czech Grandmaster Thai Dai Van Nguyen for a hard-fought fifth round win on Wednesday.

Gukesh, who had narrowly missed out on the title last year, had begun his campaign with Javokhir Sindarov and Jorden van Foreest as well as against compatriots Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa. The 19-year-old, however, gave his hopes of winning his maiden title at Wijk aan Zee a major boost on Wednesday after beating Van Nguyen with black pieces in a battle that lasted 51 moves.

Gukesh capitalises on a blunder to collect first victory of TSC ‘26

Wednesday’s meeting between Gukesh and Van Nguyen witnessed an Indian Game opening in which the Indian brought his bishops and knights forward, opting for a kingside castle by the ninth move and having his queen flanked by the two rooks. It was interesting to see Van Nguyen mirror somewhat mirror his moves at this stage.

It wasn’t long before the first set of pieces were knocked off the board, with Gukesh initiating a series of pawn captures from the 16th move. The Czech GM offered a queen exchange shortly after, which Gukesh accepted right away. The game suddenly took a turbulent turn at this stage, with Gukesh also losing a bishop and a knight during this stage but maintaining equilibrium by capturing his opponent’s corresponding pieces.

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Van Nguyen also attempted to push Gukesh on the backfoot by offering a check with his rook (24. Rd8+), which was quickly neutralised by the latter’s remaining bishop. Gukesh later took the attack to his opponent by offering a check with his bishop and a knight in the 33rd move while developing his rook on his right side.

The decisive moment of the game, however, came in the form of a blunder by Van Nguyen, who pushed his rook forward by a couple of squares (35. Rc3), allowing the Classical world champion to direct the bishop and knight that had been circling the king towards that piece.

The eval bar suddenly starting tilting heavily in favour of the Indian, who had a mixed run in 2025 and had even struggled in his favourite Classical format in the second half of the year. Though he lost a bishop, Gukesh made Van Nguyen’s position even shakier by knocking a couple of his pawns off the board, with the last remaining pawn’s path threatened by the presence of the black king.

Van Nguyen ended up raising the white flag of surrender with slightly less than six minutes left on the clock, less than half of what Gukesh had at that point.

Arjun, Aravindh lose as Pragg’s winless run continues

The victory took Gukesh past Arjun on the standings, with the latter falling behind after suffering the first defeat of his campaign at the hands of Vladimir Fedoseev while playing as white, paying the price for an error-strewn game that included a queen blunder in the 29th move. Arjun wasn’t the only Indian finishing on the losing side as Aravindh Chithambaram lost to Vincent Keymer in 36 moves while playing as black.

Meanwhile, R Praggnanandhaa’s winless run continued on Wednesday with the defending champion being held to his third consecutive draw after starting his campaign with back-to-back losses. ‘Pragg’, the only Indian competing in the Candidates Tournament this year, played out a 37-move draw against Anish Giri. Like Arjun, the 20-year-old also committed a blunder with his queen, but benefited from his opponent making an error with the same piece in the very same move.

Hans Niemann currently shares the top spot along with Uzbekistani GMs Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the trio having an identical score of 3.5 after five rounds.

Thursday will be the first rest day of Tata Steel Chess 2026, with the action resuming with the sixth round on Friday.