 "Fabiano Caruana and D Gukesh in action during Round 3 of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Image credit: Tata Steel Chess")
Reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju faced off with world No 2 Fabiano Caruana on Round 3 of the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands on Monday, holding the highest-ranked player in the tournament to a draw. Gukesh now has a total of two points out of a possible three after defeating Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri in his first match since being crowned world champion in Singapore last month, which was followed by back-to-back draws, the first one against Slovenia’s Vladimir Fedoseev .
How Gukesh pulled off a second consecutive draw
It was a relatively relaxed encounter between Gukesh and Caruana on Monday with the two players shaking hands after just 24 moves, with the two players agreeing to a stalemate due to repetition of moves. Gukesh had showcased his never-say-die spirit during his World Championship battle against China’s Ding Liren as well as in previous tournaments but decided against taking any risks against Caruana after his Queen pawn opening was met with the Ragozine defense.
‘Fabi’ later advanced his Kingside pawn, but Gukesh decided against going all-out in response. The American GM would later sacrifice his bishop for Gukesh’s knight in his 11th move right after castling, only for the two players to retreat to a series of defensive moves.
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India’s R Praggnanandhaa, meanwhile, moved to the top of the Tata Steel Chess 2025 standings after defeating compatriot and highest-ranked Indian Arjun Erigaisi, who lies at the bottom of the table with just 0.5 points out of a possible 3.
Praggnanandhaa is tied on 2.50 points with Uzbekistani GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, but occupies the higher spot as a result of a superior SB (Sonneborn–Berger) score. Arjun was holding fort against Pragg’s aggressive player for the longest time until a couple of mistakes – in the 51st and 56th moves – cost him the game and forced him to resign by the 60th move.
In the other all-Indian battle on Monday, Leon Mendoca held Pentala Harikrishna to a stalemate.