R Praggnanandhaa reigned supreme as he edged previous D Gukesh within the tie-breaker of the Tata Chess Masters, in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The outcome was an enormous shock to Gukesh because the India No. 1 wasn’t even anticipated to be in that place, and at one level was at sole lead. However a dip in performances in direction of the top noticed Praggnanandhaa catch up, after which the outcomes on Spherical 13 pressured a tie-breaker.
Arjun Erigaisi defeated D Gukesh, on Sunday in Wijk aan Zee.
Arjun Erigaisi was in all probability the chaos maker as he defeated title contender Nodirbek Abdusattorov within the earlier spherical, which additionally noticed him finish a 24-game winless streak on the Tata Masters. Then he adopted it up with a sensational victory in opposition to Gukesh on Sunday. In the meantime, Vincent Keymer, who assisted Gukesh throughout his World C’ship triumph, defeated Praggnanandhaa, to offer the India No. 1 a preventing probability, though tie-breakers are usually not his forte and it was proved so.
Arjun Erigaisi reacts after defeating D Gukesh
Talking after his win in opposition to Gukesh, Arjun was visibly euphoric and revealed that his confidence is again. The grandmaster started his marketing campaign on a poor word, which additionally noticed him lose his India No. 1 spot to Gukesh. “Yes, definitely. After yesterday’s win I was feeling pretty confident, today already. When I had such a tough start, I was very under-confident until yesterday.”
Analysing his efficiency in Wijk aan Zee, he said, “You realize, I believe the beginning itself, like the primary recreation, I ought to have simply traded queens and was the alternative color bishop endgame. I as an alternative performed on with queen e8. I believe that was a nasty resolution wanting again. However yeah, undoubtedly very essential was the sport in opposition to Fedoseev. I blundered this tactic, which he noticed instantly. And that was a giant blow.
Towards Gukesh, Arjun was completely dominant, profitable a one-sided recreation with a 98.8% accuracy. Throughout his marketing campaign, he didn’t win a recreation for the primary 11 rounds; dropping 4 instances, drawing seven and taking place over 30 score factors and two spots in world rankings. However then out of the blue, he discovered the arrogance and stage to rise again up, and defeat two event leaders within the final two rounds.
Based on the reside Elo rankings, he’s the present World No. 5 and India No. 2 with 2776.7 rankings. He ended 2024 as India. 1 however his poor marketing campaign noticed him lose that spot to Gukesh.