GM Gukesh Dommaraju leads his first tournament as world champion after defeating GM Leon Luke Mendonca in round nine to move to 6.5/9 in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters. He’s half a point ahead of GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who made a draw against GM Fabiano Caruana, and GM Vladimir Fedoseev, whose fourth win in six games came against GM Pentala Harikrishna. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu began the day as co-leader, but now trails Gukesh by a point after losing to GM Anish Giri.
GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen continues as the sole leader of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Challengers on 6.5/9, with GM Benjamin Bok now level with GM Erwin l’Ami half a point behind after beating IM Irina Bulmaga. The only other decisive game saw IM Faustino Oro crack on move 87 of an equal endgame against GM Ediz Gurel.
This is a flash report—come back later for full player quotes and analysis!
Round ten starts on Wednesday, January 29, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Masters
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Round 9 Results
After the rest day we saw three wins in the Masters, all for the white pieces.
That broke up the three way tie for first, with Gukesh taking the sole lead, while Praggnanandhaa dropped to fourth. Fedoseev took over in joint second place with Abdusattorov.
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Standings After Round 9
Mendonca crumbled in time trouble against Gukesh, and was finally put to the sword with 43.Rf2!.
Our Game of the Day was Fedoseev’s impressive win over Harikrishna, which GM Rafael Leitao takes a detailed look at below.
Challengers
There were just two wins in the Challengers.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Round 9 Results
Bok’s win moved him within half a point of first place, while 16-year-old Gurel is now 1.5 points off first in the race to qualify for next year’s Masters.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Standings After Round 9
This is a flash report—come back later for full 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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