Praggnanandhaa won the 87th Tata Steel Chess tournament for his most impressive result of his career so far. The path to victory was not at all smooth and he had to show great determination on the final day. Praggnanandhaa shared the lead with World Champion Gukesh and I don't think anyone predicted both players would go down to a defeat. Gukesh was well beaten by a resurgent Arjun Erigaisi who said his confidence […]

The twelfth round of the Tata Steel Masters saw the top three all involved in dramatic games. At the end of the day Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh share the lead on 8.5/12 and Nodirbek Abdusattorov is now on 7.5 points after losing. If they are tied tomorrow there will be a blitz tie-break match after the round. First of all Praggnanandhaa won a short game against Alexey Sarana whose solid undefeated start is a […]

The Tata Steel Masters heads into the final two rounds with three players in contention for first place. Gukesh's draw took him to 8/11 and a win for Praggnanandhaa put him right back in it on 7.5 points. Nodirbek Abdusattorov let a win escape against Vincent Keymer but stays very much in contention on 7.5 points as well. The leaders now all face players in the bottom half of the field, one of […]

Gukesh leads the Tata Steel Masters with 7.5/10 by half a point from Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 7 points, a further half point behind is Praggnanandhaa. It seems very likely the winner will be one of these three players and all of them won today. There is a rest day on Thursday followed by the final three rounds with the event finishing on Sunday. Gukesh started the game as black with 1.e4 d6! the […]

Today produced an opportunity for the World Champion Gukesh to take the lead and he delivered by beating Mendonca in a good game with the white pieces. His co leaders could not match him, Abdusattorov, drew in a solid game against Caruana, and Praggnanandhaa lost to Giri. Gukesh played a complicated game and while his opponent Mendonca played strongly for much of the game, he needed too much time to do so and […]

The Tata Steel Masters enters a second rest day on Monday with a three way tie between Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa on 5.5/8, half a point clear of Vladimir Fedoseev on 5 points and in turn half a point clear of Alexey Sarana, Wei Yi and Fabiano Caruana on 4.5/8. The winner of this year's Masters will surely be one of these players. Today the leaders Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh drew a Berlin […]

The Tata Steel Masters has only just past the half way stage and there is a three way tie between Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa on 5/7. World Champion Gukesh was the only one of these leaders who won today. Gukesh beat Pentala Harikrishna on the white side of an Advance French. Harikrishna came up with a novelty of 11…Qb6 but then after 12.g4 didn't follow up with 12…Ncxd4 which he surely would […]

Nodirbek Abdusattorov continues to share the lead with Praggnanandhaa on 4.5/6 after both drew their games today. Praggnanandhaa drew a well conducted Open Spanish against Wei Yi where there weren't any clear chances for either player. In contrast Abdusattorov built up a winning position against World Champion Gukesh only to let it slip at the end. Gukesh remains very much in touch half a point behind the leaders. There was in fact only […]

There were three decisive games in Round 5 of the Tata Steel Masters and they all were wins for players at, or near the top, of the standings. Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Jorden Van Foreest in spite of being worse out of the opening. Once he equalised after the inaccurate 17.b5?! he quickly took over 20.Nd5?! 24.f4?! and 27.a5?! were all inaccurate from Van Foreest and Abdusattorov brought home the point convincingly after that. […]