Gukesh Catches Leaders; Arjun Suffers 4th Loss
World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju goes into the second half of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters in the joint lead with GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu after beating GM Pentala Harikrishna in round seven. GM Max Warmerdam scored his first win, inflicting a fourth loss on GM Arjun Erigaisi, who has now lost 28.6 rating points. The other decisive game was a bounce-back win for GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who took down GM Vincent Keymer.
Top seed GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen caught GM Erwin l'Ami in the Tata Steel Chess Challengers lead by defeating IM Faustino Oro, while 14-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi is just half a point behind after a dramatic win over IM Divya Deshmukh.
Round eight starts on Sunday, January 26, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
- Masters: Gukesh Joins Leaders; Warmerdam, Fedoseev Also Win
- Challengers: Nguyen Catches L'Ami; Lu Miaoyi In Hot Pursuit
Masters: Gukesh Joins Leaders; Warmerdam, Fedoseev Also Win
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Round 7 Results
There were three wins for White in round seven of the Masters as we crossed into the second half of the tournament.
That meant that Gukesh had caught Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa on +3, with Fedoseev just half a point behind.
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Standings After Round 7
The fastest decisive game of round seven was another bitter loss for Arjun, who has now lost nine games and won zero, in 20 rounds playing in the Masters in 2023 and now 2025.
Warmerdam 1-0 Arjun
There are two sides to every story, however, and for 24-year-old Dutch Warmerdam it was his first-ever win over a 2800-rated player. He joked to WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni, "It was only the second time I’ve played one. I lost two weeks ago to Magnus, which was the first game, so I’m back to 50 percent!"
Warmerdam talked about how the win felt: "He’s clearly not well, so it’s not like I’m beating him in his best form, but still it’s, of course, an incredible feeling, and I was insanely nervous at the end when I felt like it should be in the bag."
I was insanely nervous at the end when I felt like it should be in the bag.
—Max Warmerdam on beating Arjun Erigaisi
He revealed that his nervousness showed when he saw two winning moves at the end (36.e6 and 36.Bf4), he settled on playing the second and then made the first by mistake!
Despite what he called "a little moment of 'what just happened?'" no harm was done, and Warmerdam won a brilliant game which he'd begun by playing "a very unambitious line" with the intention of keeping things calm. That's easier said than done against Arjun.
That clash is our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
It was another costly loss for Arjun in terms of rating.
Climbing the rating ranks is like the stock market: stairs up, elevator down. https://t.co/zRJewJXbGQ
— John Bartholomew (@fins0905) January 25, 2025
He started so high, however, so that he's "only" dropped from world number-four to six (below Gukesh and Abdusattorov), and there are still six rounds to mount a recovery, or at least to try and post his first-ever win in the Masters.
Gukesh 1-0 Harikrishna
There are no such problems for Gukesh, who made his escape the day before count by beating Harikrishna—the second time in Wijk aan Zee this year that he's beaten one of his world championship seconds. There were echoes of that match in Singapore when Harikrishna played GM Ding Liren's weapon of choice, the French, but Gukesh explained that it was unclear who had managed to spring a surprise:
"I think we both didn’t manage to surprise each other because I think he was prepared and I also was aware of this line, but I just couldn’t remember the details!"
When Harikrishna reacted badly to Gukesh pushing his g-pawn, however, it seemed as though the world champion had taken control, and he admitted he "got excited" when he was able to play 15.g6!.
Gukesh noted 15...fxg6 16.Rg1 "looks crushing," but after 15...f6 in the game he confessed, "Surprisingly, it was not easy to prove anything, but I think he even took over, or maybe I never really had anything."
Perhaps a rare moment of self-doubt from the world champion, but when Harikrishna missed a crucial detail in the complications that followed, Gukesh reached the time control with a completely winning position. Harikrishna kept putting up resistance before finally throwing in the towel on move 45.
Gukesh joins Praggnanandhaa and Abdusattorov in the #TataSteelChess Masters lead after beating Harikrishna! https://t.co/I9penp6Vj6 pic.twitter.com/3lJ62jWssp
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 25, 2025
In the post-game interview, Gukesh talked about what he likes about Wijk aan Zee:
"It’s kind of nice that once I step out of the room, when I look out, there are no people, the roads are empty. In India, you don’t see that. It’s nice to have this change."
It's not all zen, however!
This is the craziest thing I have ever seen here @tatasteelchess pic.twitter.com/n9zgK69MtJ
— Anna-Maja Kazarian (@AMKazarian) January 25, 2025
Guki-mania is real.
That win saw Gukesh join the leaders, since Abdusattorov made a 31-move draw against GM Anish Giri, while Praggnanandhaa came prepared for a wild Sicilian Rossolimo against GM Jorden van Foreest.
10 moves in and the black knight was getting trapped on h5, while the white bishop was getting trapped on the other side of the board. "It looked all very impressive, but basically it was just a lot of engine play," said Van Foreest of the draw that followed, and he also noted the ideas of the sacrifices were familiar: "This specific position is pretty new, but it’s a very common position with colors reversed."
The last decisive game of the round was a bounce-back win for Fedoseev.
Fedoseev 1-0 Keymer
No one would have been surprised if Fedoseev's fortunes had turned after his loss to Sarana, but instead he returned to doing what he's done best in this event—mastering chaos. He managed to bamboozle Keymer, whose response to 24.e4! allowed Fedoseev to seize an initiative that he never let go.
In the remaining games, GM Wei Yi's time usage made it feel as though he was on the ropes against GM Leon Luke Mendonca, but the balance was never upset on the board, and the Chinese defending champion claimed his seventh draw in seven rounds when the time control was reached at move 40.
GM Fabiano Caruana also, to his obvious frustration, finds himself on 50 percent after he was unable to exploit risky play by GM Alexey Sarana, whose 18...Ng4!? was asking for trouble... as well as threatening mate-in-one.
19.Qg3! Qxd4 led to a position where Black sacrificed the g4-knight for three pawns, but while Caruana seemed to have winning chances, Sarana defended precisely and never looked overly troubled before a draw was agreed on move 61.
Sunday's round eight, the last round before the second rest day, has the potential to be hugely important in the race for tournament victory. Co-leaders Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh face each other ("It’ll be a cool game!" said Gukesh), while Abdusattorov takes on Fedoseev, who is just half a point behind.
Challengers: Nguyen Catches L'Ami; Lu Miaoyi In Hot Pursuit
The excitement is also growing in the Challengers, since only the winner of the event earns the big prize of a place in the 2026 Masters. There were four decisive games.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Round 7 Results
Nguyen's win took him level with L'Ami, while Lu and GM Benjamin Bok are half a point behind.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Standings After Round 7
How does it feel to face an 11-year-old opponent? Challengers top-seed Nguyen was asked if there was extra pressure when he faced Oro:
"Of course! I think everyone in this field feels that way. He has this kind of presence and a little bit of aura around him, considering he’s 11 and 2450. That’s crazy, so I felt more nervous today than the other days, so that’s why I’m quite relieved."
I felt more nervous today than the other days!
—Thai Dai Van Nguyen on facing Faustino Oro
The nerves grew when Nguyen fell an hour behind on the clock, but when Oro miscalculated and lost a pawn, the rest was relatively easy. Nguyen, who's neck-and-neck with GM David Navara for the Czech number-one spot, revealed that after four years of focusing on chess, he's started a degree in finance in Prague, adding, "Actually my results in chess have even improved since!" He explained that the lowered expectations helped his game.
The battle to win the Challengers is much too close to call, with Nguyen's opponent in round eight, Lu, just half a point behind the leaders after her win over Divya. The game was convincing, but the Chinese star could also easily have let it slip if she hadn't found a crucial move with under a minute on her clock (Divya had 16).
One more finish deserves a brief mention. 16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel had played the longest game of the day in either section for two rounds in a row, missing a win in round five and losing in round six, so he deserved some good fortune in round seven.
GM Nodirbek Yakubboev would have been somewhat better if he'd played 34...Rg6!, but with nine seconds on his clock he blundered with 34...Kh7?. Gurel launched the winning combination with three seconds to spare!
Gurel takes on leader L'Ami in round eight.
How To Watch
The 87th edition of Tata Steel Chess takes place January 18-February 2, 2025, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game, with a 30-second increment from move one. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments.
Previous coverage:
- Round 6: Gukesh Pulls Off Great Escape Against Abdusattorov
- Round 5: Fedoseev Beats Caruana; Abdusattorov, Gukesh Also Win Before Showdown
- Round 4: Praggnanandhaa Leads After 3rd Straight Win; Heartbreak For Arjun
- Round 3: Pragg Beats Arjun, Leads With Abdusattorov—7/7 For White In Challengers
- Round 2: Caruana, Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa Win To Join Leaders
- Round 1: Gukesh Beats Giri In Thriller As Tata Steel Chess Starts With A Bang
- Tata Steel Chess 2025: 7 Talking Points
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
