Praggnanandhaa Won Tata Steel 2025 the Hard Way: By Losing First
In the January 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh tied at 8.5/13, then both lost their final classical games. Pragg won the playoff in sudden death. A complete breakdown of the 87th Wijk aan Zee.
The final round of the 87th Tata Steel Chess Masters, January 2025, was a disaster for both leaders, and somehow that made the result better.
Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh had been tied at the top of the standings going into Round 13 in Wijk aan Zee. Both needed a result. What they got was the opposite. Arjun Erigaisi, Pragg’s own teammate on the Indian national squad, beat Gukesh in 31 moves. And Vincent Keymer beat Praggnanandhaa in a game that went nearly seven hours. Both leaders lost. Both finished on 8.5/13.
So Pragg won the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters by losing in Round 13 and then coming back for a playoff.
The playoff
The tiebreak format was rapid games. Pragg lost the first. Evened it in the second. In sudden death (one game, White gets extra time but must win, Black needs only a draw) Pragg took White and won. That’s the title.
Gukesh had already been World Chess Champion for six weeks when this happened. He’d won the championship in Singapore in December 2024. He came to Wijk aan Zee as the reigning world title holder, and he lost the playoff to a player a year older and a few hundred rating points below him on the live list.
That’s chess.
Why this tournament matters
Tata Steel is routinely called the “Wimbledon of Chess”. Partly because of its age (the event started in 1938), partly because of the setting. Wijk aan Zee is a village on the North Sea coast about 30 km north of Amsterdam. The playing hall sits near the beach. The tournament is embedded in the local community in a way that major chess events usually aren’t: residents play in side events, the town follows the results, players walk along the dunes between rounds.
The field at Wijk aan Zee is always competitive. The 2025 Masters included Gukesh, Pragg, Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wei Yi, and Vincent Keymer among others. Seven players in the top fifteen in the world, all playing classical chess for two weeks in a room with no spectator noise.
Praggnanandhaa’s playing style
Praggnanandhaa R (born August 10, 2005, in Chennai) became a grandmaster in June 2018 at 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days. At the time, he was the youngest grandmaster in history by a narrow margin.
His style is confrontational. He doesn’t grind; he attacks. He’d reached the 2023 Chess World Cup final against Magnus Carlsen, pushing Carlsen to tiebreaks before losing. That run established him at the elite level before he’d turned 18.
The Tata Steel win marked his first major classical super-tournament title. Not the World Cup, not an online event, a classical round-robin against a full elite field over 13 rounds. That’s a different kind of result than a knockout format, and the chess world noticed.
The player he most resembles historically is Mikhail Tal, attacking, calculating deeply in sharp positions, willing to sacrifice material for initiative. The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal is the best annotated game collection in chess literature for players who want to understand that kind of attacking chess. Tal annotated his own games, and the writing is both technically useful and genuinely entertaining.
The Indian factor
Three of the top four players at Wijk aan Zee 2025 were Indian. Gukesh was the world champion. Pragg won the tournament. Arjun Erigaisi had the most impressive individual result in the final round (31-move win over the world champion). The Thai Dai Van Nguyen won the Challengers section and earned a Masters invitation the following year.
For anyone following Indian chess right now, this was Wijk aan Zee as an extension of the Budapest narrative: a generation that’s winning everything at once. The full breakdown of that generation covers the structural reasons why it’s happening.
The clock at every board in Wijk aan Zee is the DGT 3000. If you’re getting serious about rated play, that’s the clock to own. Our chess clock guide covers the full comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters? Praggnanandhaa R, in a playoff against Gukesh Dommaraju. Both had finished at 8.5/13 after the classical rounds, tied for first. Pragg won the sudden-death tiebreak game.
What happened in Round 13 of Tata Steel 2025? Both leaders lost. Arjun Erigaisi beat Gukesh in 31 moves, while Vincent Keymer beat Praggnanandhaa in nearly seven hours. The collapse of both leaders led to the playoff.
Where is Wijk aan Zee? A coastal village about 30 km north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, on the North Sea. The Tata Steel Chess Masters has been held there since the early 1960s (the tournament itself started in 1938 in a slightly different format).
How old is Praggnanandhaa? Born August 10, 2005. He was 19 years old when he won Tata Steel 2025. He became a grandmaster at age 12 in 2018.
Sources
- Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025, Wikipedia
- Praggnanandhaa wins Tata Steel Masters 2025. Official Tata Steel Chess site
- The Week in Chess: Pragg wins the Tata Steel Masters after dramatic final round
- Tal, Mikhail. The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal. Everyman Chess, 1997.
This page contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, DiscussChess earns from qualifying purchases.
Sources
Further reading
- The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal — Mikhail Tal — ASIN verified via Open Library 2026-05-02. Everyman Chess 1997. Tal's attacking style rhymes with how Praggnanandhaa approaches sharp positions, the most entertaining annotated game collection in chess literature.
- DGT 3000 Digital Chess Clock — ASIN verified via Amazon 2026-05-02. FIDE-standard clock used at Tata Steel and all major classical events.