Tata Steel Chess 2025: D Gukesh loses to Arjun Erigaisi in final round, suffers first defeat as world champion

D Gukesh suffered his first defeat since being crowned the youngest chess world champion in December, losing to compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the Tata Steel Chess tournament on Sunday. Gukesh, who had defeated Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren to be crowned the 18th and youngest chess world champion in Singapore in December, ended up losing to Arjun despite playing with white pieces, resigning in 31 moves.

This was after he began with a King’s Pawn Opening that developed into a Petrov’s Defense: Classical Variation, and played a couple of good moves (9. Bg2; 13. d4), initiating a bishop exchange in the 14th move. Things, however, started going downhill for the 18-year-old GM after he negated the promising start with a couple of questionable moves (18. Rd1; 20. Bf4).

Gukesh’s King and Queen were eventually cornered by Arjun’s rooks along the ‘H’ file (1 and 2) in the 31st move, and at that point, it was game over for him. Gukesh had recently surpassed Arjun as the highest-ranked Indian player , but on Sunday, it was the latter who gave his good friend a reminder of the skill and mindset that made him one of the best players globally in the current generation.

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🇮🇳 Gukesh D 0-1 Arjun Erigaisi 🇮🇳

🇮🇳 Gukesh D suffers his first loss since becoming World Champion, losing to 🇮🇳 Arjun Erigaisi in the final round of Tata Steel Masters 2025.

This is Arjun’s second straight win. With this result, 🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa R can secure tournament… pic.twitter.com/WGQVjr6Znz

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) February 2, 2025

Gukesh missed out on the opportunity to seal the Tata Steel Chess title with a victory, but wasn’t the only Indian finishing on the losing side on Sunday.

R Praggnanandhaa, who was tied on 8.50 points with Gukesh ahead of the final round with the two Indians sharing the top spot in the Masters standings, lost to German grandmaster Vincent Keymer while playing with black pieces. Praggnanandhaa, who is only a year older than Gukesh, surrendered after waging a fierce battle that lasted till the 80th move.

While Arjun finished 10th with back-to-back wins after failing to win a single game in the first 11 rounds, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa remained tied on 8.50 points after losing their final games. Nodirbek Abdusattorov could have joined the two and made it a three-way blitz tie-break for the title had he won his final game.

The Uzbekistani GM, however, was held to a draw by India’s Pentala Harikrishna, meaning either Gukesh or Praggnanandhaa would become only the second Indian to win the prestigious tournament after the legendary Viswanathan Anand.