D Gukesh continued his fine, unbeaten run in his first tournament since becoming world champion, getting a fifth win in the tenth round of the Tata Steel Masters on Wednesday in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. Gukesh capitalised on a blunder from Max Warmerdam to seal his victory and maintains his sole lead on 7.5 points.
The chasing pack, however, are hot on his heels heading into the last rest day with victories of their own and only a point separating the top three. Nodirbek Abdusattorov remained half a point behind, getting a risky win over Alexey Sarana while R Praggnanandhaa bounced back from a loss the day before to get back at the third spot. The Indian beat Vladimir Fedoseev, who had overtaken his spot in the standings, to be just one point shy of the lead.
Playing with Black, Gukesh was up to the challenge of Warmerdam's unusual moves in the match. "I just wanted to surprise him and get an interesting game, and he surprised me immediately afterwards, with 2.g3, which I thought was weird at first, but it probably makes some sense," he told in his post-match interview.
There was a sense of aura around Gukesh, who was said he was happy to be on the road playing chess just a month after his World Championship battle. "I think that at this level you don't get here unless you love what you're doing, and also it's pleasant for me to play this tournament after a month at home, when it was also quite hectic. It's nice to come here and just be able to focus on what I do the best," he said.
Gukesh meets Warmerdam's 1.e4 with 1...d6!?, suggesting aggressive intentions, as Round 10 of #TataSteelChess begins! https://t.co/mvX13f7IDD pic.twitter.com/yenpWT2mNV
- chess24 (@chess24com) January 29, 2025
For Praggnanandhaa, playing against fellow contender Fedoseev, a win was crucial after his loss to Anish Giri and a win is what he fought for. "I wanted to have a fight today, and I knew that Fedoseev is someone who goes for a fight, so I was just wanting to give my best today," the Indian said after the match.
Abdusattorov, the closest competitor to Gukesh, also found a crucial win by going for high-risk moves to hand Alexey Sarana his first loss of the tournament. He called it his worst game of the tournament, but it was enough to keep him close to the lead.
All the other games in the tournament were draws. From an Indian perspective, Pentala Harikrishna managed a draw against Fabiano Caruana, hitting his chances of making a final push in the tournament. Arjun Erigaisi drew with Vincent Keymer and Leon Mendonca drew with Anish Giri to continue to be the two bottom-placed players in the standings.
In the Tata Steel Challengers, India's R Vaishali went down in a six-hour, 76-move game with leader Thai Dai Van Nguyen.
Standings after Round 10
Dommaraju Gukesh: 7.5
Nodirbek Abdusattorov: 7.0
R Praggnanandhaa: 6.5
Vladimir Fedoseev: 6.0
Fabiano Caruana: 5.5
Wei Yi: 5.5
Anish Giri: 5.0
Alexey Sarana: 5.0
Pentala Harikrishna: 4.5
Jordan van Foreest: 4.0
Vincent Keymer: 4.0
Max Warmerdam: 3.5
Leon Luke Mendonca: 3.0
Arjun Erigaisi: 3.0