R Praggnanandhaa roared back into contention at the 2025 Tata Steel Chess tournament with a superb win over world no. 4 (live rankings) Fabiano Caruana, now within a point of overall leader D Gukesh in Round 11. The world champion remained unbeaten after a draw with Wei Yi (a result that saw him climb to world no. 3 in the live rankings) while Pentala Harikrishna and Leon Luke Mendonca picked up impressive wins, with Arjun Erigaisi drawing once more.
Praggnanandhaa, playing with black against Caruana, responded to the American's early aggression with active moves, later admitting he hadn't evaluated too far but was willing to fight. An even game turned slightly favourable after a couple of innacuracies by Caruana in the midgame, and Praggnanandhaa then pounced on a blunder in move 32, after Caruana gave him an opening by moving his queen away, allowing the Indian to take a defensive pawn with his knight. The writing was on the wall and five moves later, Caruana resigned. The victory took Praggnanandhaa up to 7.5 points, just half a point behind leader Gukesh.
The world champion's unbeaten run continued against Chinese GM Wei Yi, who had won the previous edition of the tournament. Gukesh tried a surprise in the opening with his knight, thus bumping Wei Yi out of his preparation, and his ninth move sparked a variation that had both players thinking for 40 minutes. It resulted in a line that saw plenty of material exchanges, and after the smoke cleared there was little other option than to draw, with both players agreeing to do so on move 30.
Gukesh ���� just become the new World #3! �� #TataSteelChess pic.twitter.com/5pOHchAHr2
- Chess.com (@chesscom) January 31, 2025
Nodirbek Abdusattorov, meanwhile, also remained within half a point of Gukesh, but will rue the draw against Vincent Keymer, having thrown away a winning position. Keymer's 28th move saw him advance his pawn but it weakened his king, and Abdusattorov found the correct moves thereafter to earn a winning position. 38...Qe7 sparked off a queen trade, but that allowed Keymer back into the game, and a long draw ensued.
Elsewhere, Leon Luke Mendonca earned his first win of the tournament, beating Vladimir Fedoseev with black pieces, capitalising in the endgame after his opponent failed to spot a defensive move. Pentala Harikrishna continued the winning momentum for Indians with a patient, hard-fought win over Alexey Sarana. Arjun Erigaisi's indifferent tournament continued, although he was briefly losing against Jordan van Foreest but found the resources to earn a quick draw.
Anish Giri defeated Max Warmerdam, but remains two points behind the leader and with two rounds left, is out of contention.
In the Tata Steel Challengers, Divya Deshmukh picked up a win with black against Irina Bulmaga, who is bottom of the standings. R Vaishali's losing run continued against Aydin Suleymanli, and she's now dropped out of contention and is ranked 10th.
Standings after Round 11
Dommaraju Gukesh: 8
Nodirbek Abdusattorov: 7.5
R Praggnanandhaa: 7.5
Wei Yi: 6
Anish Giri: 6
Vladimir Fedoseev: 6
Fabiano Caruana: 5.5
Pentala Harikrishna: 5.5
Alexey Sarana: 5
Vincent Keymer: 4.5
Jordan van Foreest: 4.5
Leon Luke Mendonca: 4
Arjun Erigaisi: 3.5
Max Warmerdam: 3.5