In his first tournament since becoming world champion, D Gukesh has taken sole lead atop the Tata Steel Masters standings with a win over compatriot Leon Mendonca in ninth round of the Tata Steel Masters on Tuesday in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. The Indian now has 6.5 points and is clear at the top after other results.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew with Fabiano Caruana after an intense match while R Praggnanandhaa lost to Dutch GM Anish Giri, which means the three are no longer on level points at the top (Note: Gukesh was still in lead via SB but three players had the same number of points.)
This was Gukesh’s third win in a row with White and helped given him a boost in the standings with four rounds to go. “Happy that I played a good game today,” he told WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni after the match.
Gukesh beats Mendonca to take the sole lead in #TataSteelChess with 4 rounds to go! https://t.co/TEz6vcgrIB pic.twitter.com/gQlZnMcRTM
– chess24 (@chess24com) January 28, 2025
Vladimir Fedoseev, who was just 0.5 points shy of the lead, also got a win over India’s GM Pentala Harikrishna. This is his fourth win in six games came against.
Praggnandhaa was on the receiving end of Giri’s first win of the tournament after seven straight draws. This result will hampers his chances of winning the tournament as he is now ranked fourth with 5.5 points, coming down from joint lead.
Elsewhere, Arjun Erigaisi drew with Wei Yi as the Indian’s woes in this tournament continued. He has 2.5 points, along with Leon Mendonca, which makes them the two bottom placed players at the Masters.
In the Tata Steel Challengers, there was an all-Indian clash between R Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh, which ended in a draw. This gives Vaishali 5 points, placing her eighth while Divya is second last.
The next round of matches is on Wednesday night and with just four rounds to go, the standings assume even significance. In the tenth round, Gukesh will take on Max Warmerdam while Praggnanandhaa plays Fedoseev, which could be crucial for the the Indian to gain back his advantage.
Standings after Round 9
Dommaraju Gukesh: 6.5
Nodirbek Abdusattorov: 6.0
Vladimir Fedoseev: 6.0
R Praggnanandhaa: 5.5
Alexey Sarana: 5.0
Fabiano Caruana: 5.0
Wei Yi: 5.0
Anish Giri: 4.5
Pentala Harikrishna: 4.0
Jordan van Foreest: 3.5
Vincent Keymer: 3.5
Max Warmerdam: 3.5
Leon Luke Mendonca: 2.5
Arjun Erigaisi: 2.5
