Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
It’s getting worse for the Indian players participating at Tata Steel Masters. If one expected them to come out recharged after a day of rest, it turned out to be the opposite. D Gukesh suffered his first defeat in 2026 and the other three settled for draws.
After six rounds played and seven to go in the Dutch seaside town of Wijk Aan Zee, there are no Indians in the top half of the table featuring 14 players. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi have three points each. They are placed eighth and 10th, respectively. R Praggnanandhaa is 12th with two. Aravindh Chithambaram is 14th and last, also with two points.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan is the sole leader with 4.5 points. His compatriot Javokhir Sindarov is half-a-point behind at second. A pack of three players is on 3.5.
No Indian near the top is a deviation from the recent history of the event known as the Wimbledon of Chess. Pragg and Gukesh made it an Indian 1-2 last year. In 2024, Gukesh finished jointly top on points and second in tie-breaker. It will take a Herculean effort to match those results this year.
Looking for an explanation, the inability to pull off wins appears to be a bane of the Indian campaign so far. Of the 21 games they have been part of until now, the four players have scripted just two wins and lost six. The rest were drawn.
Arjun Erigaisi beat Pragg in the first game and appeared to be in good shape before stumbling against Vladimir Fedoseev in the fifth round. The Russian, who qualified for the Candidates from the FIDE World Cup in Goa, is the ninth seed with a rating of 2705. The Indian is the second seed rated 2775.
If Erigaisi’s efforts to pull himself back near the leading pack ended in a draw against another Candidate — Matthias Bluebaum of Germany seeded 12th at 2679 — Gukesh’s return from the rest day turned worse. Having scripted his first win of the year against Czech Republic’s Thai Dai Van Nguyen — ranked 14th among the participants with 2656 — in the previous round, he lost to Abdusattorov.
The 21-year-old Uzbek had beaten Gukesh in the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai to reduce India’s gold-medal chances to bronze. One of the rising youngsters in the elite category, Abdusattorov is a former world No. 4 and the sixth seed with a rating of 2751. His ability is well known and those who play in events of this stature are of a certain minimum standard. Differences in rankings often don’t matter at their level.
In tournaments like this with a high percentage of draws, wins separate the champion from the rest. The Indians to have won games and competitions in the last two years have not been able to deliver on that count. Unless they soon get some results in their favour, the last seven rounds can become harrowing.
Players in the top five after six rounds have won at least two games each. Abdusattorov has bulldozed his way to three. Top seed and world No. 4 with a rating of 2776, Vincent Keymer of Germany, has also won three. He is on 3.5 points because of two defeats. The low win count of the Indians and two of them being without a win is a study in contrast. Time to correct this is running out.
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