World champion Gukesh Dommaraju suffered his second consecutive defeat at the Tata Steel Chess 2026 Masters, falling to Anish Giri in round seven on January 25. R Praggnanandhaa extended his winless streak with a draw against Matthias Bluebaum, while Arjun Erigaisi and Aravindh Chithambaram also lost their games. The results marked a challenging day for Indian players in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
The seventh round of the Tata Steel Chess 2026 Masters tournament unfolded on Saturday, January 25, in Wijk aan Zee, bringing tough outcomes for several Indian grandmasters. Gukesh Dommaraju, still reeling from a devastating one-move blunder against Nodirbek Abdusattorov the previous day, resigned after 37 moves to Anish Giri. The Dutch grandmaster, who had endured two losses and four draws earlier in the event, secured his first victory. Gukesh made another error by advancing his queen to d6 instead of d5, though it did not lead to an immediate collapse.
The prior day's loss had been particularly harrowing for the teenage world champion. After the blunder, Gukesh buried his face in his palms for nearly five minutes and later stood isolated in the media room for 15 minutes. Abdusattorov expressed sympathy post-game, stating, “I feel very sorry for him. It’s a terrible feeling. I’ve done it myself many times. So it’s an absolutely horrible feeling,” and described the error as “unexplainable.”
R Praggnanandhaa, aiming to defend his Tata Steel title after a strong 2025, continued his winless run with a 33-move draw against Matthias Bluebaum via threefold repetition. Following initial defeats to Erigaisi and Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa has drawn his last five games. He employed aggressive tactics, sacrificing a rook on move 19 to launch a kingside attack, leaving Bluebaum under clock pressure—he spent nearly 50 minutes on one move as early as the 17th.
Arjun Erigaisi fell to 14-year-old Turkish prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, and Aravindh Chithambaram was defeated by Jorden van Foreest. With six rounds remaining, the Indian contingent faces upcoming challenges: Gukesh versus Vladimir Fedoseev, Erigaisi against Chithambaram, and Praggnanandhaa rematching Erdogmus in round eight on January 26.
