D Gukesh secures another impressive win at Tata Steel Chess 2025 to stay at top and inch closer to 2800

D Gukesh maintained his lead on the Tata Steel Chess Masters 2025 standings by remaining unbeaten and beating local star Max Warmerdam in Round 10 on Thursday. This is Gukesh’s fifth win in Tata Steel Chess 2025, his first tournament since becoming the world chess champion, as he inches close to 2800 Elo rating points.

Gukesh currently leads the Tata Steel Chess Masters 2025 standings with 7.5 points out of 10 while Uzbek Grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov is second with 7 points after beating Russia’s Alexey Sarana. India’s R Praggnanandhaa, who defeated Russian GM Vladimir Fedoseev in Round 10, is third, a point off the top.

Five out of seven matches in Round 10 produced results with only two draws. Both draws involved Indian players as GM Arjun Erigaisi, who has been struggling for form, drew against Germany’s Vincent Keymr and Pentala Harikrishna somehow managed to avoid a defeat in a tricky rook endgame against world No.2 Fabiano Caruana, dealing a massive blog to the American’s title-winning chances.

Gukesh wins with black pieces against Warmerdam 

It was an aggressive start from Gukesh despite playing with black pieces as he did not look to defend. A 1.e4 opening from Warmerdam was met with 1…d6, as the 18-year-old Indian world chess champion made his intentions clear. Warmerdam’s comeback of 2.g3 caught Gukesh off-guard but not enough to unsettle him.

“I just wanted to surprise him and get an interesting game, and he surprised me immediately afterwards, with 2.g3, which I thought was weird at first, but it probably makes some sense,” Gukesh explained to WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni after match.

Nonetheless, the game developed into a Closed Sicilian but Warmerdam still had the advantage. The 24-year-old Dutch GM made a mistake on 28.Rc1? to which Gukesh replied with the zwischenzug 28…Ne4! and took control of the match. After Gukesh played 30…Nxg3, Warmerdam had no escape route and he resigned.

Praggnanandhaa stuns Fedoseev to bounce back

“I surely do love to play chess and I think that at this level you don’t get here unless you love what you’re doing, and also it’s pleasant for me to play this tournament after a month at home, when it was also quite hectic. It’s nice to come here and just be able to focus on what I do the best,” Gukesh said reflecting on his win over Warmerdam and his return to chess after winning the World Chess Championship 2024.

Gukesh now has 2793.6 points in live chess rating, inches away from the gold-standard Elo rating of 2800. Only Viswanathan Anand and Erigaisi from India have crossed that barrier.

Praggnanandhaa emerged as a winner against Fedoseev after the Russian made a mistake with 8…gxf6. This gave Praggnanandhaa a long-term advantage, but Fedoseev found counterplay, making the game highly complex. Praggnanandhaa believed he had regained control with 32.Bf3, and once the queens were exchanged, he executed a forcing variation to secure victory.

India’s Leon Luke Mendonca played out a draw against Dutch GM Anish Giri, while the defending champion from China, Wei Yi was held to a draw by another local Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest.

In the Challengers section, R Vaishali suffered a defeat against Thai Dai Van Nguyen of the Czech Republic, while Divya Deshmukh went down to Germany’s Frederik Svane.

Tata Steel Chess 2025 Masters standings: Gukesh (7.5), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (7.0), Praggnanandhaa (6.5), Vladimir Fedoseev (6.0), Fabiano Caruana (5.5), Wei Yi (5.5), Anish Giri (5.0), Alexey Sarana (5.0), Pentala Harikrishna (4.5), Jorden van Foreest (4.0), Vincent Keymer (4.0), Max Warmerdam (3.5), Arjun Erigaisi (3.0), Leon Luke Mendonca (3.0).

Tata Steel Chess 2025 Challengers standings: Thai Dai van Nguyen (7.5), Erwin l’Ami (7.0), Aydin Suleymanli (6.5), Benjamin Bok (6.5), Frederik Svane (6.0), Miaoyi (5.5), Ediz Gurel (5.5), Kazybek Nogerbek (5.5), Nodirbek Yakubboev (5.0), Vaishali (5.0), Arthur Pijpers (4.5), Faustino Oro (2.5), Divya Deshmukh (2.0), Irina Bulmaga (1.0).