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.

The Indian juggernaut in international chess remained unstoppable as Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa fought through exhaustion and nerves to defeat world champion D Gukesh in a clash of compatriots to clinch the Tata Steel Masters title for the first time in his prolific career.

R Praggnanandhaa secured the 2025 Tata Steel Chess title after a thrilling tiebreak victory over D Gukesh, crediting Arjun Erigaisi's crucial win and humorously suggesting he should buy him a gift for the assist.

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.

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

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

GM R. Praggnanandhaa held his fort against reining World Champion and compatriot D. Gukesh for a come-from-behind win in the tiebreaks to claim the Tata Steel Masters 2025 in Wijk aan Zee on Sunday.

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