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.

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

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

Here are what the tiebreak rules state at Tata Steel Masters with Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa tied on 8.5 points with one game left (and with Nodirbek Abdusattarov one point behind).

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.

The Tata Steel Chess 2025 Masters title was decided in playoffs after both joint leaders D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa lost their matches in Round 13 and were forced to participate in tiebreakers. Praggnanandhaa stunned chess world champions Gukesh in playoffs to clinch the Tata Steel Chess 2025 Masters title.

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa triumphed at the Tata Steel Masters chess event in Netherlands, defeating world champion D. Gukesh 2-1 in the tiebreaker.

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

R Praggnanandhaa triumphed over world champion D Gukesh 2-1 in a thrilling tiebreaker to win the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament, despite both players facing surprising losses in the final round.