Despite beating reigning world champion D Gukesh in the blitz tie-breaks to to win the prestigious Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, R Praggnanandhaa will not be in action in the opening event of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Germany.

As the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 heads into its final round, all eyes are on Indian prodigies D Gukesh a

Reigning World Chess champion D Gukesh was left devastated after his shocking title defeat to his compatriot R Praggnanandhaa at the Tata Steel Masters 2025 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands on Monday, February 3.

After losses in Round 13, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa played out a tie-breaker in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, with the former coming good in sudden-death to win.

Gukesh Dommaraju ascended to World No. 3 after drawing against reigning champion Wei Yi at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025. Rameshbabu Praggnanan

With veterans like Magnus Carlsen either losing interest in classical chess or reducing their tournaments, the stage is set for the likes of Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi to take over chess.

For Gukesh, this was the second year running when he tied for first position and lost the tiebreaker. In the previous edition last year, Gukesh had lost to Chinese Wei Yi

In the 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025, R Praggnanandhaa won his sixth game, Arjun Erigaisi secured his first victory, and Gukesh settled for a draw. Highlights included Praggnanandhaa's win over Alexey Sarana and Abdusattorov's defeat by Erigaisi.

Here are what the tiebreak rules state at Tata Steel Masters with Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa tied on 8.5 points with one game left (and with Nodirbek Abdusattarov one point behind).

The 19-year-old from Chennai made history on Sunday by defeating reigning World Champion and compatriot D Gukesh to claim his maiden Tata Steel Chess tournament crown.

In the tie-breaker between two Chennai players played in the blitz format, Pragg was the underdog because of exhaustion.