Tata Steel Masters: Gukesh plays draw against Arjun, Praggnanandhaa opens account in third round

Top seed Arjun Erigaisi could not get past the defenses of world champion D. Gukesh as the two Indians agreed to a draw in the third round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands, on Monday.

Having qualified to the candidates tournament, Matthias Bluebaum scored his first victory in the event, defeating compatriot Vincent Keymer. He joined the leaders’ pack on two points out of a possible three.

Amongst other Indians in the fray, Aravindh Chithambaram played out another draw with Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan while R Praggnanandhaa kept his two losses behind and held Thai Dai Van Nguyen of Czech Republic to a draw in the 14-player 13-round event.

READ | Praggnanandhaa loses again; Gukesh and Arjun held to draws in round 2

With 10 rounds still to come in the first super tournament of the year, Arjun, Abdusattorov and Hans Niemann were joined by Bluebaum and Jorden Van Foreest in the lead on two points out of a possible three.

With just a half point separating the leaders from the second placed contestants at this point, it is clear that the next couple of rounds ahead of the rest day will decide if anyone is running away.

Arjun and Gukesh fought it out in the Queen’s gambit accepted, an opening that Praggnanandhaa had experimented with Arjun in the opening round and had bitten the dust.

Clearly, Gukesh had prepared better as he was able to keep white’s pieces at some distance from his king and even keep them busy, defending against his pawn storm on the queen side.

Arjun did not take many risk as he is normally prone to and decided to call it truce.

Aravindh played a solid game right from the word go. His opening choice gave nothing as white and Abdusattorov was able to equalise without much ado. The game was drawn quickly.

Published on Jan 20, 2026