NEW DELHI: Gukesh Dommaraju, the youngest-ever World Chess Champion, displayed his best version in classical chess during Round 7 of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 on Saturday in Wijk aan Zee.
Facing compatriot Pentala Harikrishna, who also served as his second during the World Chess Championship against Ding Liren, Gukesh opted for the French Opening.
Despite Harikrishna’s strong start with the black pieces, he made a misstep on move 12 (Nfe7) after white castled early on move 7. Gukesh capitalised on this by exerting dominance in the centre of the board.
The 38-year-old GM attempted to reposition his knight with Kf5 but only compounded his troubles, handing further advantage to the youngster.
A critical moment came on move 20 when Gukesh’s b4 posed a serious threat; however, Harikrishna missed the opportunity for an effective counter.

Gukesh-Harikrishna (Credit: ChessBase)

On move 29, Harikrishna captured a pawn with Nxe3, but Gukesh’s reply, Qb7—widely regarded as the best move in the position—steered the game decisively in his favour. The endgame reached its climax when Harikrishna resigned on move 45.
With this victory, Gukesh climbed to the top of the Masters leaderboard in the 87th edition of the “Wimbledon of Chess”, scoring 5/7.
Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu faced Jorden van Foreest, a former Tata Steel champion. Playing Black, Pragg adopted the Sicilian Defense and skillfully countered the Dutch GM’s solid play.

A couple of strong moves from the Dutch grandmaster were aptly countered by the Indian GM. With the queens being traded off the board by the end of the 16th move, the game reached a stalemate.
Sensing the deadlock, Pragg chose to shake hands and call it a draw, maintaining his position as co-leader of the Masters, with the same points as Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
While Gukesh and Pragg had a good day in the office, Arjun Erigaisi‘s poor run in the tournament continued as he suffered a heavy loss to Dutchman Max Warmerdam.

Playing the Sicilian Defense with the black pieces, Arjun made several early mistakes, giving Max some breathing space. Despite trying to remain compact in the centre of the board for a long time, Arjun took Max’s bait and sacrificed his rook with his own rook on the 29th move, which proved fatal for the Indian.
Although he showed some resistance with the queen, Arjun resigned with his queen still on the board, and the Indian GM currently finds himself at the bottom of the Masters standings.
Elsewhere, Leon Luke Mendonca held off defending champion Wei Yi in a 40-move draw. Notable games included draws between Anish Giri and Abdusattorov, as well as Fabiano Caruana and Alexey Sarana. Vladimir Fedoseev rebounded from a previous loss to secure a victory against Germany’s Vincent Keymer.
In the Challengers section, Divya Deshmukh fell to China’s rising star Miaoyi Lu, while Vaishali Rameshbabu maintained her strong form with a hard-fought draw against Arthur Pijpers. Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Erwin l’Ami retained the lead in this section with 5/7.

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025: Round 7