R Praggnanandhaa wins 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters title

Chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa won the 87th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Master Title  2025 held in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The Challenger event of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament was won by Thai Dai Van Ngyuen of the Czech Republic.

The 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament was held in the Master, Challenger, and Ameature categories.

The  Master and Challenger categories event was held in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands from 18 January -2 February 2025.

First Indian after V.Anand to win Tata Steel Chess Title

R Praggnanandhaa is the first Indian chess player to win the Tata Steel Chess Master Title since the legendary Vishwanathan Anand won it in 2006. 

Viswanathan Anand has won the Tata Steel Title five times in 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, and 2006.

In the 87th edition of the Tata Steel Chess title, after the 13th round, world champion D.Gukesh and R. Praggnanandhaa were tied at 8.5 points each.

To decide the winner the match went into the tie-break. Both the players won one match each in the tiebreak.

In the sudden death match, Gukesh blundered and Praggnanandhaa defeated him to become the champion.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan was in third place.

About the Tata Steel Chess Tournament

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual tournament held in the Netherlands. As Tata Steel is the sponsor of the tournament hence it is called the Tata Steel Chess Tournament.

Tata Steel has been sponsoring the tournament since 2011.

Before Tata Steel it was sponsored by Corus and Hoogovenstoernooi companies.

The  Chess Tournament was started in 1938 in the Netherlands.

The Chess tournament is considered to be the ‘Wimbledon of Chess’ and attracts the top chess players in the world.

In the Master group, the top 14 world chess players play against each other in a round-robin format.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway has won the Master title eight times.

Chinese Wei Yi was the winner of the 86th edition in 2024.

Also Read: D Gukesh Youngest World Chess Champion

Koneru Humpy wins World Rapid Chess Championship