Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 Round 1 Highlights: Gukesh beats Anish Giri; Harikrishna takes down Arjun Erigaisi

When you're momonets away from a brilliant takedown of the reigning world champion in his first game after winning the crown. And then you blunder it so badly, you're on the verge of losing! 

Scenes from thr game between Anish Giri and Gukesh when the Dutch GM realised what he had done! 

(Screengrabs via YouTube: Chess24)

An incredible win for Gukesh here! He was in deep trouble before a blunder from Anish Giri allowed him to not just escape from the impending checkmate, but also press on for his own win. 

Anish Giri finally resigned. 

WHAT A HEARTBREAK FOR THE 18-YEAR-OLD! 

Leon Luke Mendonca, playing in his first super elite tournament, had his German opponent Vinvent Keymer in trouble for most of the game. And then, within a space of a few moves, he lost the game after allowing Keymer, who is the Germany No 1, to threaten checkmate. 

A heartbreaking defeat this! 

Gukesh has just under 17 minutes to make his next 19 moves. After that, he will get 50 additional minutes. 

Right now, he;s only living on the 30-second increment. 

This is worrying, but he played almost the entire World Chess Championship against Ding Liren fighting such crazy time scramble. 

So Hari has both his rooks on the board while Arjun Erigaisi has his queen still active on the battlefield. Hari also has an additional pawn on the board. 

here's what the board position looks like after 25 moves from each player:

(Photo Courtesy: Lichess)

Praggnanandhaa R [White] vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov [Black]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Nd5 a5 4. Nf3 d6 5. a3 Bc5 6. e3 c6 7. d4 Ba7 8. Nc3 Nd7 9. Qc2 Ngf6 10. Bd2 O-O 11. O-O-O Re8 12. h3 e4 13. Nh2 d5 14. g4 dxc4 15. g5 Nd5 16. Nxe4 Qe7 17. Ng3 b5 18. Nf5 Qe6 19. h4 c5 20. Bh3 Qa6 21. h5 b4 22. Bf1 cxd4 23. Bxc4 b3 24. Qxb3

Pragg needs to make 16 moves in 14 minutes now, before he gets the increment. His opponent, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, has almost 58 minutes.

Right now, Pragg has a pawn advantage on the board, but he's living dangerously now. He's getting 30-second increments for each move.

So Anish Giri has yielded to temptation and played the move that Gukesh was angling for when the world champion played 14. Bh4. Anish responded with a 14... g5, trapping Gukesh's bishop with his g pawn. But in the process he has left his king exposed. 

Gukesh slickly plays 15. Nxg5. 

What follows is a 15... hxg5 16. Bxg5.

Anish has used up most of his significant time advantage as he contemplates his 16th move. And while he has a knight more on the board, he is down two pawns. Plus, his king is vulnerable. 

So Arjun Erigaisi opts to not go in for the queen exchange that Hari was angling for. 

Hari played 15. Qd6 offering a queen exchange. But after a considerable period of thought, Arjun played 15... Qe8 

This screengrab could have been a painting. Harikrishna has thrown his queen in front of Arjun's queen. He's offfering a queen exchange. Arjun thinking. Divya Deshmukh, who is playing in the Challengers event, is strolling in the background while Erwin l'Ami stares at the board. 

This is what the board position looks like as Arjun contemplates the queen exchange: 

What a move here from Gukesh against Anish Giri! He pushes his bishop to the corner with a 14. Bh4, inviting Anish to trap it with his g pawn. Anish thinking.

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 c5 4. O-O Nc6 5. d4 e6 6. c4 dxc4 7. Qa4 Bd7 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. Qxc4 Be7 10. Nc3 O-O 11. e4 Rc8 12. Qe2 Bc5 13. Bg5 h6 14. Bh4

Here's how the game has progressed so far: 

Here's how the Pentala Harikrishna vs Arjun Erigaisi game has progressed after 13 moves each from both players. 

Here are all the moves so far:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nf6 6. Be2 g6 7. Be3 Bg7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-O d5 10. Bf3 dxe4 11. Nxc6 Qc7 12. Nxe7+ Qxe7 13. Be2 Ng4 

This is how the Pentala Harikrishna vs Arjun Erigaisi game has progressed:

Leon Mendonca has a two-pawn advantage over Vincent Keymer besides a 20-minute advantage on the clock at the moment. 

He's playing with white. He's the lowest-rated player in the 14-player masters section.

Here are all the moves on the board: 

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5 c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Bd3 Nd5 9. Nf3 Bd6 10. Nc3 f5 11. Nxd5 cxd5 12. b4 Nc6 13. Bb5 Bb7 14. Bb2 O-O

Here's how the Leon Luke Mendonca vs Keymer game has progressed:

So Gukesh, despite having landed in the Netherlands just this morning after being felicitated in New Delhi with the Khel Ratna, is hungry for a fight. He's started as the more active player with white pieces against local star Anish Giri. Gukesh's queen doing some jumping around while Giri's queen sits there on the back ranks. 

So not just Gukesh, we also have two of his seconds in action at the Tata Steel Masters event in Wijk aan Zee: Harikrishna (who's playing Arjun Erigaisi) and Vincent Keymer (facing Leon Luke Mendonca). 

A quick overview look at all the seven games going on the masters section at the Tata Steel Chess event at the moment. 

(Graphic courtesy: Chess24)

Gukesh playing with white pieces against Anish Giri opts for the King's Indian Attack in the Réti Opening. 

Here's the first round match-ups for masters section:

Gukesh D vs Anish Giri

Pentala Harikrishna vs Arjun Erigaisi

Praggnanandhaa vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Leon Luke Mendonca vs Vincent Keymer

Max Warmerdam vs Alexey Sarana

Wei Yi vs Fabiano Caruana 

Jorden van Foreest vs Vladimir Fedoseev

So the organisers have called in all the players in the centre for a photograph. A nice moment there. Almost like one of those image from decades ago where all the elite players would be called in for a group photo during elite chess events. 

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the first round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament from Wijk Aan Zee.