Tata Steel Chess 2025, Round 2: Praggnanandhaa beats Harikrishna to join Gukesh in five-way lead; Vaishali in joint lead in Challengers

GM R. Praggnanandhaa played a swift game to defeat compatriot Pentala Harikrishna with the black pieces in the second round of the Tata Steel Chess 2025 in Wijk aan Zee on Sunday.

Playing the Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack of the Sicilian Defence, Praggnanandhaa secured three extra pawns in the endgame as Harikrishna conceded on the 55th move.

With this victory, Praggnanandhaa moved into a five-way joint lead at the top alongside Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer, and World Champion D. Gukesh, all on 1.5/2 after two rounds.

Both Caruana and Abdusattorov played decisive games to earn their first wins of the event. While Caruana triumphed over local player Jorden van Foreest, Abdusattorov handed Leon Luke Mendonca his second consecutive loss.

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Meanwhile, Harikrishna, who began his tournament with a shocking win over World No. 4 Arjun Erigaisi in the first round, slipped to eighth place with 1.0/2.

Gukesh, on the other hand, played another fighting game and held Vladimir Fedoseev to a draw in his second-round clash. Fedoseev kept Gukesh under time pressure and had a positional advantage at one point, but the 18-year-old remained composed to secure a 43-move draw.

Arjun and Anish Giri stabilised after their first-round losses, playing out an uneventful draw to open their accounts. Both currently occupy the bottom half of the points table with 0.5/2.

In the Challengers section, both Indians in the fray, Divya Deshmukh and R. Vaishali, also drew their respective games. While Divya held Thai Dai Van Nguyen, Vaishali shared the spoils with China’s Lu Miaoyi.