World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju goes into the second half of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters in the joint lead with GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu after beating GM Pentala Harikrishna in round seven. GM Max Warmerdam scored his first win, inflicting a fourth loss on GM Arjun Erigaisi, who has now lost 28.6 rating points. The other decisive game was a bounce-back win for GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who took down GM Vincent Keymer.
Top seed GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen caught GM Erwin l’Ami in the Tata Steel Chess Challengers lead by defeating IM Faustino Oro, while 14-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi is only half a point behind after a dramatic win over IM Divya Deshmukh.
This is a flash report—come back later for full player quotes and analysis!Â
Round eight starts on Sunday, January 26, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Masters:
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Round 7 Results
There were three wins for White in round seven.
That saw Gukesh catch the leaders, while Fedoseev is just half a point behind.
Tata Steel Chess Masters: Standings After Round 7
The game which had the biggest impact on the standings was Gukesh’s complex 45-move win over his world championship second, Harikrishna.
Gukesh joins Praggnanandhaa and Abdusattorov in the #TataSteelChess Masters lead after beating Harikrishna! https://t.co/I9penp6Vj6 pic.twitter.com/3lJ62jWssp
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 25, 2025
Our Game of the Day, meanwhile, is Warmerdam’s sparkling attacking win over Arjun, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
Challengers
The winner of the Challengers qualifies for next year’s Masters, so the tension is growing.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Round 7 Results
Nguyen’s win took him level with L’Ami, while Lu and GM Benjamin Bok are half a point behind.
Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Standings After Round 7
This is a flash report—come back later for full player quotes and analysis!Â
How To Watch
The 87th edition of Tata Steel Chess takes place January 18-February 2, 2025, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game, with a 30-second increment from move one. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments.
Previous coverage: