R Praggnanandhaa picked up his first win of the Tata Steel Masters 2025 in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands, taking down Pentala Harikrishna with the black pieces in a superb endgame on Sunday evening. The win put Praggnanandhaa among a group of five players - including world champion Dommaraju Gukesh - who have 1.5 points from the opening two rounds.
Harikrishna, who had beaten fellow Indian Arjun Erigaisi in the first round, had the white pieces in the second round against Praggnanandhaa and made an ambitious opening choice, which left his opponent worried.
"I was getting scared about my position because he's just going to push the pawns and if I don't find anything concrete, I'm just going to get mated," Praggnanandhaa said.
However, after a long grind, Harikrishna's refusal to trade rooks in the endgame proved to be his undoing. If that trade had happened, a bishop endgame would have almost certainly ended in a draw, but eventually, Praggnanandhaa emerged with the point after 55 moves.
Gukesh, who beat Anish Giri in the first round, had a tough battle against Slovenia's Vladimir Fedoseev. He was worse out of the opening, and Fedoseev had the chance to put the world champion on the ropes. He tried to, but Gukesh kept finding the most accurate defensive responses time and time again, to ensure the disadvantage out of the opening didn't grow into anything significant for his opponent.
Arjun Erigaisi was on the receiving end of such a defensive effort against Anish Giri. The Dutch no.1 was similarly worse out of the opening as Gukesh, and his position grew even worse through the middle game, but somehow, he found the moves to stabilise his position.
Leon Mendonca, the 18-year-old Indian, is the only player yet to score a point after the opening two rounds, as he lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov in round 2, following his loss to Vincent Keymer in the first round.
Results
Nodribek Abdusattorov 1-0 Leon Luke Mendonca
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Jorden van Foreest
Vincent Keymer 0.5-0.5 Max Warmerdam
Vladimir Fedoseev 0.5-0.5 Dommaraju Gukesh
Pentala Harikrishna 0-1 R Praggnanandhaa
Alexey Sarana 0.5-0.5 Wei Yi
Arjun Erigaisi 0.5-0.5 Anish Giri
Standings
Fabiano Caruana 1.5
Dommaraju Gukesh 1.5
Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1.5
R Praggnanandhaa 1.5
Vincent Keymer 1.5
Wei Yi 1
Vladimir Fedoseev 1
Pentala Harikrishna 1
Alexey Sarana 1
Max Warmerdam 1
Arjun Erigaisi 0.5
Anish Giri 0.5
Jorden van Foreest 0.5
Leon Mendonca 0