World champion Gukesh Dommaraju suffered his second consecutive defeat at the Tata Steel Chess 2026 Masters, losing to Anish Giri in round 7. R Praggnanandhaa extended his winless streak with a draw against Matthias Bluebaum, while Arjun Erigaisi and Aravindh Chitambaram also fell to defeats. The results highlighted a challenging day for the Indian contingent in Wijk aan Zee.
The seventh round of the Tata Steel Chess 2026 Masters tournament unfolded on Saturday, January 24, in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, bringing tough challenges for Indian grandmasters. Gukesh Dommaraju, still reeling from a painful one-move blunder against Nodirbek Abdusattorov the previous day, resigned after 37 moves to Anish Giri. That earlier loss had left Gukesh visibly distraught, burying his face in his palms for nearly five minutes and later standing alone in the media room for 15 minutes. Against Giri, Gukesh made another error by pushing his queen to d6 instead of d5, though it did not lead to an immediate resignation. Giri, who had endured two losses and four draws prior, claimed his first victory of the event.
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. Starting with losses to Erigaisi and Abdusattorov, Pragg has since managed five consecutive draws. In this game, he adopted an aggressive style, sacrificing his rook on move 19 to launch a kingside attack, pressuring Bluebaum who spent nearly 50 minutes on one move early on.
Arjun Erigaisi fell to 14-year-old Turkish prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, while Aravindh Chitambaram was defeated by Jorden van Foreest. These results marked a difficult outing for the Indians, with six rounds remaining. Round 8 features Gukesh against Vladimir Fedoseev, Erigaisi versus Chitambaram, and Praggnanandhaa facing Erdogmus.
Reflecting on Gukesh's Friday blunder, Abdusattorov had expressed sympathy: "I feel very sorry for him—it’s a terrible feeling. I’ve done it myself many times. It’s an absolutely horrible feeling." The tournament, an 88th edition round-robin event, runs from January 17 to February 1, with no draw offers before move 40.
