After losses in Round 13, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa played out a tie-breaker in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, with the former coming good in sudden-death to win.

Reigning World Chess champion D Gukesh was left devastated after his shocking title defeat to his compatriot R Praggnanandhaa at the Tata Steel Masters 2025 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands on Monday, February 3.

In the second game, Gukesh had a fine position but was gradually outplayed. In the third game, the decider, Praggnanandhaa was again on the defensive with his white pieces but then found some nice moves and Gukesh got overambitious in a position that would have been a draw otherwise.

Gukesh Dommaraju ascended to World No. 3 after drawing against reigning champion Wei Yi at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025. Rameshbabu Praggnanan

Here are what the tiebreak rules state at Tata Steel Masters with Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa tied on 8.5 points with one game left (and with Nodirbek Abdusattarov one point behind).

In the tie-breaker between two Chennai players played in the blitz format, Pragg was the underdog because of exhaustion.

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa triumphed at the Tata Steel Masters chess event in Netherlands, defeating world champion D. Gukesh 2-1 in the tiebreaker.

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa emerged victorious 2-1 in the tie-breaker against world champion D Gukesh to win the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament in Netherlands on Ferbuary 2. This was his first time winning the tournament,

For Gukesh, this was the second year running when he tied for first position and lost the tiebreaker. In the previous edition last year, Gukesh had lost to Chinese Wei Yi

World champion D Gukesh and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa faced tough losses on the final day of the Tata Steel Chess tournament, leading to a dramatic tiebreaker. Despite their defeats, both players will compete in short-duration games to decide the winner.