GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is the sole leader of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters on 3.5/4 after making it three wins in a row by smoothly outplaying GM Leon Luke Mendonca. GM Pentala Harikrishna scored the day’s most beautiful win after sacrificing both knights against GM Max Warmerdam, while GM Vladimir Fedoseev caught GM Arjun Erigaisi in a vicious trap just as the world number-four looked set to win his first ever game in the Masters. The remaining games included World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju needing to dig deep to hold a six-hour, 70-move draw against GM Alexey Sarana.
14-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi and GMs Erwin l’Ami and Thai Dai Van Nguyen continue to lead the Tata Steel Chess Challengers after draws in round four, while it was a perfect day for India’s female stars. IM Divya Deshmukh took down GM Ediz Gurel, while GM Vaishali Rameshbabu found a sparkling combination to defeat GM Nodirbek Yakubboev.
This is a flash report—come back later for player quotes and analysis!
Round five starts on Wednesday, January 22, at 8 a.m. ET/ 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Masters
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Round 4 Results
After four rounds, we finally have a sole leader of the Tata Steel Chess Masters.
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Standings After Round 4
Our Game of the Day was Harikrishna’s exquisite win over Warmerdam, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
The day’s most painful moment was Arjun looking on the brink of finally winning a Masters game on his 17th attempt only to blunder with 27.Nxf5??.
Disaster now for Arjun, who stumbles into 27.Nxf5?? Qxf5! and Fedoseev is winning!#TataSteelChess pic.twitter.com/NPfQOcooxi
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 21, 2025
After 27…Qxf5! by Fedoseev White was suddenly lost—the sting in the tail is that the black knight comes to e3 to fork the two white rooks.
Challengers
After seven white wins in round three, round four was much quieter in the Challengers.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Round 4 Results
The trio of leaders remained unchanged, but Bok and Vaishali joined the chasing pack half a point behind.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Standings After Round 4
This is a flash report—come back later for player quotes and analysis!
How To Watch
The 87th edition of Tata Steel Chess takes place January 18-February 2, 2025, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game, with a 30-second increment from move one. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments.
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