Tata Steel Chess 2025, Round 7: Gukesh beats Harikrishna, shares lead with Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov
Tata Steel Chess 2025, Round 7: Gukesh beats Harikrishna, shares lead with Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov
World Champion D Gukesh grabbed the joint lead at Tata Steel masters, outplaying his world championship second P Harikrishna in the seventh round here.
It was Gukesh’s third victory in the event that put him on course for his maiden title here as he now shares the lead with fellow Indian R. Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan on five points.
Praggnanandhaa could not break the defences of Jorden van Foreest while Anish Giri drew his sixth game on the trot with Abdusattorov.
Meanwhile, local hopeful Max Warmerdam added to the woes of Arjun Erigaisi by handing the Indian his fourth defeat in the tournament.
Having started the tournament on 2801 as the second seed just behind Fabiano Caruana of the United States this has been a real letdown by the Indian who has lost about 28 rating points and has slipped to sixth spot in live ratings.
The other Indian in the fray – Leon Luke Mendonca – seemed to be getting into the groove as he held defending champion Wei Yi of China to a draw. However, much hard work remains to be done in the remaining six rounds for the young Indian grandmaster.
Vladimir Fedoseev came back into reckoning for top honours at the expense of Vincent Keymer of Germany. The Russian-turned-Slovenian has 4.5 points and holds the fourth spot just ahead of former compatriot Alexey Sarana who now plays for Serbia.
Harikrishna on 3.5 points is sharing the sixth spot with Caruana, and Wei Yi. Mendonca has two points, a half more than Arjun and they are in the last two spots in the 14-player 13-round tournament.
Gukesh faced the French defence by Harikrishna, an opening he had a deep look into during the World Championship match against Chinese Ding Liren.
The Advance variation provided a certain volatility to the position and Gukesh was much better in creating problems for Harikrishna. In the end, Gukesh just tied down black pieces and marched with his king for a famous victory.
Praggnanandhaa found some early tactics as black against Foreest but they proved only enough to guarantee a level opposite coloured Bishops endgame while Abdusattorov had a balanced position right from the word go against Anish Giri.
In the challengers section R Vaishali played out a draw with Benjamin Bok of Holland but Divya Deshmukh lost another game in the event at the hands of Miaoyi Lu of China. Nguyen Thai Dai Van of the Czech Republic and Dutchman Erwin L’ami share the lead in this section on five points each. Bok and Miaoyi Lu have 4.5 while Vaishali on four points shares the fifth spot.
