 "Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa reached Chennai on Tuesday after winning the Tata Steel Chess Masters 2025. Image: PTI")
R Praggnanandhaa returned to India on Tuesday (4 January) after winning the Tata Steel Chess 2025 title by beating world champions D Gukesh in the tiebreakers . Seen as the ‘Wimbledon’ of chess title, Tata Steel Chess is one of the most prestigious tournaments and the first major trophy won by Praggnanandhaa.
After receiving a warm welcome at Chennai airport, Praggnanandhaa spoke about his joy in winning the title and also congratulated Gukesh, who fought for the title until the very end. Praggnanandhaa also highlighted that two players from India and Tamil Nadu fighting for the title in the tiebreakers was a proud moment for the country and the state.
“I feel very happy to win this tournament, and it is very nice to see that two Indians, two Tamil Nadu people played in the tie-break in the end. We both played well. Huge congrats to him (D Gukesh) as well, he played really well,” the 19-year-old Grandmaster said upon reaching Chennai.
Praggnanandhaa was welcomed at the Chennai airport by Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) officials.
Despite losing their last matches respectively in the final Round 13, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa finished as the joint leaders in the Tata Steel Chess 2025 Masters standings and needed tiebreakers to decide the eventual winner on Sunday.
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While Gukesh won the first blitz game in the tiebreaker, Praggnanandhaa won the next two to clinch the trophy. This was Gukesh’s first tournament since winning the World Chess Championship 2024.
Praggnanandhaa: ‘I was quite ambitious in all games’
“It was very long, close to eight hours, the first game itself lasted like 6.5 hours and then we had this blitz, it was a crazy day," Praggnanandhaa said after winning the Tata Steel Chess 2025.
“This is a very special event in the chess world, and I have seen games from this tournament growing up. Last year, it did not go my way, so I was really motivated for this tournament. I think it showed in my play that I was quite ambitious in all the games trying to fight, that’s why we saw many decisive games," Praggnanandhaa added.
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Praggnanandhaa also shared that changes made to his game helped him win the Tata Steel Chess 2025 trophy.
“I knew what went wrong in the last six months and I knew what I needed to work on. I will keep trying to get better at it. I changed some things for this tournament (in my play), and it worked," he said.
Praggnanandhaa is the first Indian to win the Tata Steel Chess title since the great Viswanathan Anand’s triumph in 2006. Anand won the Tata Steel Chess in 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004 and 2006.