GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov takes a half-point lead into the final round of the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Masters after beating GM Matthias Bluebaum while GM Javokhir Sindarov made a quick draw against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Sindarov is the main challenger to Abdusattorov, but the three players a point behind can still force a playoff if the leader loses. They are GM Vincent Keymer who defeated GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen, GM Hans Niemann who pulled off a great escape against GM Gukesh Dommaraju, and GM Jorden van Foreest who drew against GM Arjun Erigaisi. 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus hit back after two losses by beating GM Vladimir Fedoseev.
GM Aydin Suleymanli bounced back to beat GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi and catch GM Andy Woodward in the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Challengers lead. The only other player still in contention for tournament victory and a spot in the 2027 Masters is GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, who is half a point back after being held to a draw by IM Faustino Oro.
Round 13 starts two hours earlier on Sunday, February 1, at 6 a.m. ET / 12:00 CET / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Masters: Abdusattorov Stakes His Claim
There were three wins in the Masters, though it really should have been four. For a second day in a row, Gukesh let his opponent off the hook, which was good news for Niemann’s tournament chances.
Tata Steel Masters: Round 12 Results
Abdusattorov takes a half-point lead over Sindarov into the final round and can guarantee victory with a win or ensure at least a playoff with a draw. If he loses, however, then Van Foreest, Niemann, and Keymer can all also potentially reach a playoff.
Tata Steel Masters: Standings After Round 12
Sindarov struck in round 11 to join Abdusattorov in the lead, but in round 12 he found himself faced with a dilemma—to take a quick draw by repetition against Praggnanandhaa or to play on in a slightly better position. He thought for 18 minutes before deciding to take the draw and focus on the final day.
Depending on how things went in the game of his co-leader, that might have looked like a great decision by the end of the day, but as it was, Abdusattorov was able to grab a potentially crucial win.
Abdusattorov 1-0 Bluebaum
Abdusattorov explained his approach to the penultimate round:
My plan for today’s game was to get a big fight because I made three draws and I was a little bit disappointed with my game yesterday because it was a very dry, a very boring game. I didn’t get enough play, so for today’s game I was really trying to get a fighting position.
It would be mission accomplished as he surprised Bluebaum in the opening and gained a big edge, though when we got to the critical moment of the game, the German star had managed, at least objectively, to equalize. “I couldn’t assess the position, but it seemed very dangerous for him tactically,” said Abdusattorov, and that’s how it proved, as 31…Qc7? was a mistake from which there was no way to recover.
That setback saw Bluebaum knocked out of contention for the title and slipping below 2700 again, while for Abdusattorov it’s a chance to exorcise some ghosts. In 2023 he also led the Masters by half a point going into the final round.
Abdusattorov went on to lose to Van Foreest, while GM Anish Giri beat GM Richard Rapport to take the title. In 2024 Abdusattorov finished tied for first place but lost out in the playoff, while in 2025 he was knocked out of contention when he lost to Arjun in the penultimate round.
It’s Arjun who now awaits in this year’s final round, with Abdusattorov commenting. “It’s become a tradition—my game against him in any kind of tournament is decisive!” How will he approach it? “I have big experience, but it doesn’t help if you don’t learn from your mistakes!”
Sindarov might have been joined in second place by Van Foreest, who briefly had a big but very tricky-to-navigate advantage in an opposite-sides castling position against Arjun, but the game fizzled out into a draw. That left the Dutchman a point behind Abdusattorov, where he was joined by two players. One was Keymer, who after suffering four defeats, has now won three games in a row and six in total.
Keymer 1-0 Van Nguyen
Van Nguyen has been incredibly unlucky not to score more points in his first Masters appearance, but in round 12 he was comprehensively outplayed by a player now finally performing at the level of his world number-four spot and top seed status.
Keymer exchanged queens on move 10 of a Petroff, but found a sharp tactic that led to a material imbalance he was able to massage to victory.
The other player still in the hunt for first place is Niemann, who was seemingly doomed when he decided to sac a knight against the world champion for compensation that was nebulous at best.
Niemann got two pawns and, to be fair, at some moments came very close to equalizing, but he later lost a pawn and found himself completely lost until it was Gukesh’s turn to sacrifice a knight. This time tablebases could instantly confirm that the move should lead to only a draw, but that wasn’t quite the end of the story.
A strange game, and perhaps a draw was a fitting outcome of the sacrifice and counter-sacrifice.
The remaining Masters games couldn’t affect the battle for first place, but they were still lively. Both GM Aravindh Chithambaram and GM Anish Giri had winning chances before their game ended in a 52-move draw, while in the remaining clash, 14-year-old Erdogmus hit back after two losses to win in style.
Erdogmus 1-0 Fedoseev
Erdogmus said he’d been “very sad” to lose to Gukesh and Giri in consecutive rounds. He wasn’t sure why he’d missed the key bishop move against Giri, while he said he’d missed a “very easy win” against the world champion. When WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni countered that it was very missable, he responded, “At this level it should be easy!”
Erdogmus had been pegged back to 50 percent but used that as motivation: “I thought, I will play a new tournament, two games, and I thought I should give it my best!”
It worked to perfection, as Fedoseev found himself put to the sword by some sparkling tactics. That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
Both players enjoyed the finish, where Fedoseev shrugged off the pawn checkmate to play 38…Qb1 checkmate himself—alas, there’s a strong rumor that the first checkmate ends the game!
After 2 losses, 14-year-old Erdogmus bounces back to beat Fedoseev, finishing with a pawn checkmate! https://t.co/X7kxOC6Akt pic.twitter.com/g58CEAlEod
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 31, 2026
Things are set up perfectly for the final round, since the pairings don’t include any direct encounters between the five players battling for the title, so multiple outcomes are possible. All eyes, first and foremost, will be on Arjun-Abdusattorov, where a win for Abdusattorov would give him his first title in Wijk aan Zee. A draw would mean only Sindarov could catch him and force a playoff with a win over Van Nguyen.
If Abdusattorov loses, however, then Sindarov can win outright with a win, while otherwise we could have up to five players in a playoff. Van Foreest (vs. Praggnanandhaa), Keymer (vs. Gukesh), and Niemann (vs. Giri) must all win to have a chance at the title.
Tata Steel Masters: Round 13 Pairings
Challengers: Suleymanli, Woodward, Ivanchuk Battle For Masters Spot
The four wins in the Challengers included a welcome second win for IM Eline Roebers, GM norm heartbreak for IM Carissa Yip, and a crucial win for Suleymanli.
Tata Steel Challengers: Round 12 Results
Suleymanli is now back level with Woodward before the final round, while Suleymanli’s win also ended Maurizzi’s chances. Ivanchuk, meanwhile, is still in the hunt.
Tata Steel Challengers: Standings After Round 12
Sole leader Woodward made an effortless draw with Black against GM Velimir Ivic, but that allowed him to be caught again by Suleymanli, who played a powerful attack against fellow title contender Maurizzi. It was wild and nail-biting around the time control.
Ivanchuk is the only other player in contention, half a point back, after making what is remarkably already his fourth draw against 12-year-old Oro.
Elsewhere there was a very welcome second win for Roebers, who has suffered 10 losses, as she surprisingly managed to weave a checkmating net in a rook endgame against IM Lu Miaoyi.
Yip initially seemed to get good winning chances against GM Daniil Yuffa, but things fell apart as the game went on and the U.S. star’s chances of a third and final GM norm have evaporated. Nevertheless, she’s still gained 15.1 rating points to climb to 2481.1, with the required 2500 and a third GM norm surely only a matter of time.
Tata Steel Challengers: Pairings For Round 13
The final-round pairings in the Challengers also see no head-to-head clashes for the players fighting for the title. Woodward and Suleymanli have White, against GMs Erwin l’Ami and Ivic respectively, while Ivanchuk is Black vs. Yuffa. It’s likely all three players will approach their games as must-win clashes, which should make for a thrilling ride.
How To Watch
The 88th edition of Tata Steel Chess takes place January 17-February 1, 2026, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments. The time control is 120 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment only from move 41. No draw offers are allowed before move 40.
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