The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 was the 87th edition of the annual chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee. It was held from 17 January to 2 February 2025. The field of 14 players in the Masters section included the defending champion Wei Yi, as well as 2024 Challengers winner Leon Luke Mendonca. The Challengers section included 11-year-old Argentine prodigy Faustino Oro.[1]
The tournament was a fourteen-player, single round-robin tournament, meaning there were 13 rounds with each player facing the others once.[2]
The field of 14 players in the Masters section included the defending champion Wei Yi and World Chess ChampionGukesh Dommaraju, playing his first international event since becoming world champion. Five of the top ten players participated.[3][4] Chess.com labelled the event as the year's "first super-tournament".[2] Tournament director Jeroen van den Berg said that he "selected as many players as possible with a strong mentality and willing to fight for the win".[4]
Regulations
The time control was 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move from move 1.[2] Players got 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.
Summary
Gukesh–Giri, round 1
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In this position, Gukesh played 14.Bh4!?, allowing Giri to trap his bishop with 14...g5, which Giri played after a long think.
Round 1
In his first game as World Champion, Gukesh was expected to play it safe against Giri after a long haul flight overnight and having landed only hours before the start of the game.[5] Instead he sacrificed a bishop to complicate the position after being out-prepared in the opening. Giri found several accurate moves and acquired a winning advantage, but missed the only winning move on move 35 in mutual time trouble and lost the game. Harikrishna traded his queen for two rooks and made gradual progress eventually beating Erigaisi in 63 moves. Vincent Keymer escaped a lost position against Mendonca when his opponent blundered into a mating attack. Abdusattorov left his queen en prise for four moves against Praggnanandhaa and achieved a significant edge, but couldn't convert the advantage. In the Challengers section, 14-year-old Lu defeated World Junior Champion Nogerbek, while Yakubboev, Van Nguyen, Gurel and Vaishali all scored wins.[6][7][8]
Round 2
Abdusattorov played a novelty on move 6 in an Advance French against Mendonca and won with a decisive queenside attack in 31 moves. Harikrishna played ambitiously against Praggnanandhaa but was forced to defend a pawn-down endgame. Both players misevaluated a rook exchange that would have led to a draw, and Praggnanandhaa went on to win after Harikrishna avoided the trade multiple times. Jorden van Foreest chose a rare setup against Caruana's London System and got a small advantage, but later misplayed and lost the game. Gukesh defended precisely to hold a draw against Fedoseev. Erigiasi had chances to win against Giri but eventually had to settle for a draw. Bok, l'Ami and Svane scored their first wins in the Challengers.[9][10]
Round 3
Arjun–Fedoseev, round 4
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In this position, Arjun played 27.Nxf5??, blundering his knight to 27...Qxf5! 28.Rxf5 Rxg3 29.hxg3 Ne3 winning back the rook.
Erigiasi defended too passively and was outplayed by Praggnanandhaa, who scored his second win. Abdusattorov tactically won a pawn against Warmerdam, who put up stiff resistance but ultimately lost the game. Gukesh reached a slightly better position against Caruana, but couldn't see a way to make further progress and settled for a draw. Wei was outprepared by Keymer, but the latter failed to exploit a mistake by his opponent. In the Challengers, white won on all seven boards in round 3. The player with the white pieces was higher rated on every board, except for in Lu–Svane.[11]
Round 4
Praggnanandhaa took the sole lead of the tournament after completing a hat-trick with a win against Mendonca. Erigaisi had a winning position against Fedoseev but blundered a piece in a tactical sequence and lost the game. Harikrishna sacrificed both of his knights against Warmerdam and scored his second win, moving to one point behind the leader, joined by Gukesh, Keymer, Fedoseev and Caruana. In the Challengers, Deshmukh and Vaishali scored upset wins over Gurel and Yakubboev, respectively, while Lu, l'Ami and Nguyen tied for the lead.[12][13][14]
Round 5
Abdusattorov caught up to Praggnanandhaa in the standings after winning a brilliant game against van Foreest despite getting an inferior position out of the opening.[15] Gukesh won a pawn against Keymer and went on to convert his advantage and score his second win. Fedoseev accurately converted a winning endgame after exploiting a single mistake by Caruana. l'Ami emerged the sole leader in the Challengers with a win over Deshmukh, while Lu suffered her first loss against Bok.[16]
Abdusattorov–Gukesh, round 6
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In this position, Gukesh played 60...Re5!, the only drawing move. He revealed he was briefly even hoping for more than a draw, as the black rooks and knight threaten to deliver checkmate.
Round 6
Sarana scored the day's sole win in the Masters against Fedoseev after acquiring a strong passed pawn and winning material. Abdusattorov came close to a win against Gukesh, but couldn't convert his advantage in the end after tenacious defense by his opponent. In the Challengers, l'Ami maintained his lead, while Oro and Suleymanli both scored their second wins against Deshmukh and Gurel, respectively.[17][18][19][20]
Round 7
Gukesh joined the lead after defeating Harikrishna, who played the French Defence, which was Ding Liren's defense of choice against Gukesh in their World Championship match. Fedoseev bounced back from his previous day's loss with a convincing win over Keymer. Warmerdam scored his first win in brilliant fashion while inflicting a fourth loss on Erigaisi, who slipped into last place. In the Challengers, Nguyen defeated Oro to catch l'Ami in the lead, while Lu defeated Deshmukh and moved to half a point behind the leaders. Gurel and Svane won also against Yakubboev and Bulmaga, respectively.[21]
The tiebreak was a two-game blitz match, followed by "sudden death" games. The time control was 3 minutes with a 2-second increment per move. In sudden death, White started with 2 minutes and 30 seconds.[23] Praggnanandhaa lost the first tiebreak, then equalised, and in sudden death beat Gukesh to become the 2025 Tata Steel champion.[24]
This table shows the total number of wins minus the total number of losses each player has after each round. '=' indicates the player has won and lost the same number of games after that round. Green backgrounds indicate the player(s) with the highest score after each round. Red backgrounds indicate player(s) who could no longer win the tournament after each round.[a]
In round 4, Nodirbek Yakubboev refused to perform the customary handshake with Vaishali Rameshbabu at the start of their game. In a video that went viral, Vaishali was seen extending her hand to Yakubboev, who sat down without responding. Yakubboev later posted a response on X (formerly Twitter), stating "With all due respect to women and Indian chess players, I want to inform everyone that I do not touch other women for religious reasons"[b] and "I respect Vaishali and her brother as the strongest chess players in India. If I have offended her with my behavior, I apologize."[26]
↑ Players are marked in red if there is no permutation of remaining results that allows them to catch up the tournament leader(s) after remaining rounds.
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