For the second day in a row, Gukesh Dommaraju endured defeat on the Tata Metal Chess match in Wijk aan Zee after the world champion resigned in 37 strikes to Anish Giri, the Dutch grandmaster who is without doubt one of the favourites to fulfill the Indian teenager within the World Championship battle on the finish of the 12 months. In the meantime, R Praggnanandhaa’s winless run on the Tata Metal Chess match in Wijk aan Zee continued within the seventh spherical on Saturday after he performed out a draw towards French grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum, who the Indian prodigy will face within the Candidates in simply over two months. Arjun Erigaisi misplaced to younger Turkish phenom Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus whereas Aravindh Chitambaram was handed a defeat by Jorden Van Foreest.
Gukesh had endured one of the crucial painful defeats of his profession on Friday towards Nodirbek Abdusattorov with a one-move blunder that led him to resign rapidly. That defeat was so gut-wrenching for the teenage world champion that he had spent virtually 5 minutes together with his face buried in his palms unable to return to phrases with the character of the blunder. He had then walked into the media room on the venue and spent virtually quarter-hour standing in a nook by a coat rack simply together with his head bowed and his face turned away from the world.
ALSO READ | ‘Really feel very sorry for him… completely horrible feeling’: Gukesh loses to previous foe Nodirbek Abdusattorov at Tata Metal Chess
“I really feel very sorry for him. It’s a horrible feeling. I’ve finished it myself many occasions. So it’s a completely horrible feeling,” a sympathetic Abdusattorov had mentioned within the interview after his win over Gukesh earlier than calling the blunder ‘unexplainable’.
INTERACTIVE: HOW GUKESH LOST TO ANISH GIRI IN ROUND 7
The blunder and the defeat to Abdusattorov was the kind that’s exhausting to get well from, as was evidenced towards Giri. Gukesh additionally had one other blunder towards Giri—pushing his queen to d6 as an alternative of d5—however this time round, the blunder was not the sort that resulted in a fast resignation.
Till he confronted Gukesh, Giri was having a forgettable match, shedding two video games and drawing his remaining 4 rounds. However he racked up his first victory of the Wijk aan Zee match on Saturday towards Gukesh.
ALSO READ | Magnus Carlsen on Gukesh: ‘Expectations positioned on world champion have been unrealistic… partially he introduced it upon himself’
Story continues under this advert
In the meantime, Pragg’s winless run at Wijk continued. After a superlative 2025, Pragg had began off his marketing campaign to defend his title at Tata Metal Chess with two successive defeats towards Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. He’s since then stabilised his type with 5 attracts in a row. Saturday’s draw towards Bluebaum got here in simply 33 strikes after a threefold repetition.
However not like his different attracts, towards Bluebaum, Pragg performed some ol’-fashioned romantic chess the place he sacrificed his rook as early because the nineteenth transfer as he focussed his consideration on mounting a full-fledged assault on the Frenchman’s king on the kingside.
Bluebaum was struggling on the clock as early because the seventeenth transfer after spending almost 50 minutes on a single transfer. However ultimately, Pragg opted to play out a draw.
© The Indian Specific Pvt Ltd