 "R Praggnanandhaa with his mother after he received a heroes' welcome in Chennai post his Tata Steel Chess Masters win. PTI")
Young grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa recently emerged victorious in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess competition , beating world champion D Gukesh to win the Masters title. Praggnanandhaa received a heroes’ welcome back in Chennai on Tuesday and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) officials welcomed him back to the city.
On arriving back in the city , Praggnanandhaa spoke on how the likes of Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi inspired him to work harder.
‘I worked hard for it’: Praggnanandhaa
“I didn’t have a great end to 2024. So I worked hard for it (the tournament). I am happy to have such a great start to this year. Gukesh also played well. It was an exciting tiebreaker. Results from other Indian chess players like Gukesh winning the world championship or Arjun Erigaisi crossing 2800 (Elo rating in classical chess) inspired me to work harder. Another reason was that I wasn’t happy with my game. I wanted to play better. So I kept practising,” he said.
The win also meant that Praggnanandhaa became the first Indian since Viswanathan Anand in 2006 to win the Tata Steel Chess title, while Gukesh lost his first tournament since becoming world champion last year. His first loss in a game as a world champion also came in the last round when he lost to Arjun Ergaisi.
Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, lost his final round game to German GM Vincent Keymer in a game that lasted for almost seven hours.
After both the players were level at 8.5, a tiebreak playoff match was played. Gukesh won the first game of the tiebreak before Praggnanandhaa returned the favour in the second one. Praggnanandhaa then went one better with a victory in the sudden death to clinch the title.
Viswanathan Anand responded with a witty message to Praggnanandhaa after the latter’s triumph, reminding him that Anand has won five Tata Steel Chess titles. “Mere pass panch hai .. IYKYK!," he wrote on “X”.
Praggnanandhaa finished the tournament with six wins, five draws and two losses whereas Gukesh won five matches, drew seven and lost one (Excluding the tiebreak).