GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov felt he played his best game yet as he defeated GM Vincent Keymer with Black to take a one-point lead as we cross the halfway mark of the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Masters. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju slumped to a second loss in a row, this time to GM Anish Giri, while another local hero GM Jorden van Foreest outplayed GM Aravindh Chithambaram to move into the tie for third place. He’s joined by 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who won a brilliant second game in a row, against world number-five GM Arjun Erigaisi.
In a losing position, GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi swindled IM Eline Roebers to win and catch GM Andy Woodward in the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Challengers lead. Woodward was held to a draw by GM Aydin Suleymanli, while GM Vasyl Ivanchuk scored the day’s only other win, inflicting a fifth loss in a row on IM Lu Miaoyi.Â
Round eight starts on Sunday, January 25, at 8 a.m. ET/ 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Masters: Abdusattorov Extends Lead; Giri, Van Foreest, Erdogmus Also Win
Tata Steel Masters: Round 7 Results
Once again there were four wins in the Masters, while GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu vs. GM Matthias Bluebaum was a thriller, featuring a whole rook sacrifice by Praggnanandhaa.
That saw Abdusattorov extend his lead over GM Javokhir Sindarov to a full point, while Erdogmus and Van Foreest joined the tie for third place, another half a point back.
Tata Steel Masters: Standings After Round 7
Keymer 0-1 Abdusattorov
This was a chance for Keymer, on the back of two wins in a row, to beat and catch the leader, and he couldn’t be accused of a lack of ambition. We got a wild opening, though one that wasn’t unknown to theory.
Prepared the then novelty 11…Qh1! with Anand for the 2007 WC tournament in Mexico. pic.twitter.com/uKmXS5GfZt
— Peter Heine Nielsen (@PHChess) January 24, 2026
11…Qh1 was also Abdusattorov’s pick, but he was then surprised by the reply 12.f4!? instead of the main line with 12.Bd2. He knew the computer evaluation was around equal, however, and the game could easily have ended seven moves later with a draw by repetition. Instead Keymer chose to play on, but 19.Ba5?! invited 19…e5!, threatening …Bg4 next.
Abdusattorov commented: “Obviously he could repeat early on, but he tried to push, which is understandable, and after e5, I think he was shocked and couldn’t resist in the best way.”
Giving up the exchange immediately with 20.Rxe5! f6 21.Rxe7 was the best try, while after 20.Bd3? in the game Keymer was on the ropes. That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov has analyzed below.
That saw Abdusattorov take a full-point lead after second-placed GM Javokhir Sindarov made an 84-move draw against GM Hans Niemann in a game where the balance was never seriously disturbed.
Two players did win, however, to join a tie for third place.
Van Foreest 1-0 Aravindh
This was by far the most one-sided game of the day, with Van Foreest saying of his opponent’s opening choice:
The opening caught me by surprise. I know he’s really unpredictable, but still, the King’s Indian is what I’ve been playing this tournament already a couple of games, and somehow he hit me with it. Sometimes it’s good to use your opponent’s weapons against him, but I don’t think it really worked out for him today.
Often the negative computer evaluations of the King’s Indian Defense are misleading as the player on the black side manages to whip up a powerful attack, but in this case Van Foreest was able to follow standard human plans and ease to victory.
Van Foreest’s one loss had come the day before, against Erdogmus, but it hadn’t been too hard to get over:
Yesterday I didn’t even feel so bad—the kid is just insanely strong! I don’t know how you can be this good at chess at 14. One stupid move and then in time trouble, I completely collapsed because I wasn’t used to the time trouble and I did some really dumb things, but in general he played a really fine game. After that I went to the Turkish restaurant with [his brother and second] Lucas. We didn’t have enough. I wanted to eat some Turkish as well!
The kid is just insanely strong! I don’t know how you can be this good at chess at 14.
—Jorden van Foreest on Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus
We got more evidence of just how good Erdogmus is in round seven.
Arjun 0-1 Erdogmus
“It was a very tough game. He defended very well at the end, but I somehow beat him and I feel awesome right now,” said Erdogmus after his second win in a row.
It came from a sharp opening he’d prepared with his coach, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Arjun could have made a draw by repetition but played on and, when he sacrificed a pawn just before the time control, Erdogmus correctly grabbed it. A hyper-sharp endgame followed, in which 44…Bg2! was the star winning move.
Arjun was unable to handle outside passed pawns on both sides of the board and slipped to a second defeat in three games.
Erdogmus, already the highest-rated 14-year-old in chess history, is performing at almost 2800 and has climbed to a tie for third place. He also has a point more than the two players involved in another remarkable game.Â
Gukesh 0-1 Giri
When the world champion followed four draws with a win, it looked as though he was getting ready for a title charge, but since then he’s lost two games in a row. The second loss was to Dutch number-one Giri, who has generally performed well in Wijk aan Zee but this year had left it until now to pick up a first win. Giri recalled how he missed a win and lost to Gukesh in round one in 2025:
I was really excited there because he was the fresh world champion and it was round one. This time I was really hoping, once I realized I’m winning… I realized I need to really focus now, but fortunately for me the position was also much easier to win than last time.Â
Things escalated fast after Gukesh decided not to retreat an attacked piece, with Giri explaining: “He doesn’t play for a draw. If he wants to play for a draw at some point, he’ll probably manage it, but he just plays always ambitiously so that what he did the entire game.”
A few moves later Giri was winning and had a knockout blow.
“I felt 25…Nxg3! might be the money move,” said Giri, and he was right, but he also correctly noted it wasn’t as simple as “check, check, mate” and instead went for the safe but strong 25…Nd6!?.Â
Perhaps a Gukesh in top form would have punished that decision, but this time the world champion went astray in a difficult position and had no choice but to resign.
Anish Giri’s 1st win this year in Wijk aan Zee is a 2nd loss in a row for World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju! https://t.co/RRQIH9C5Wz#TataSteelChess pic.twitter.com/riwp4g4SKU
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 24, 2026
When asked why there had been so many wild games and blunders this year, Giri joked it was because of WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni’s pre-game interviews in the venue before pointing to fighting players, the audience being much closer to the Masters players than in previous years, and the time control with no increment before move 40.
As tournament ambassador, Giri had been partly behind the choice to use the same time control as we’ll see later this year in the FIDE Candidates Tournament. Giri explained it’s unfamiliar to him and continued, “My chances at the tournament slightly slipped, but my chances at the Candidates have gone slightly up!”Â
Even the draws have been intense, with GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen getting good winning chances before being held to a 64-move draw by GM Vladimir Fedoseev.
Defending Champion GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, meanwhile, is still winless in Wijk aan Zee this year, but against GM Matthias Bluebaum he went for a rook sacrifice worthy of the great GM Mikhail Tal.
Praggnanandhaa finds himself three points behind the leader with six rounds left to play. Â
Challengers: Maurizzi Catches Woodward In Lead
For once we had a much quieter day in the Challengers, with just two wins.
Tata Steel Challengers: Round 7 Results
Maurizzi lived very dangerously but has now caught Woodward in the lead, after the U.S. grandmaster’s five-game winning streak was finally ended by third-placed Suleymanli.Â
Tata Steel Challengers: Standings After Round 7
Maurizzi was just half a point from winning the Challengers in 2024, and he’s hit the front after seven rounds this year. The way he did it was anything but smooth, however, with Roebers reaching the time control with a winning position only to throw it away on the next move. From there things went from bad to worse for the local star.
The only other win was Ivanchuk’s convincing win over Lu, who has now lost five games in a row after taking the sole lead on 2/2. For 56-year-old Ivanchuk, meanwhile, the dream of winning the Challengers and qualifying for next year’s Masters is alive. He’s now level with IM Faustino Oro on 4.5/7, a point behind Maurizzi and Woodward.
Sunday is the last day before the second rest day, with Abdusattorov-Giri, Erdogmus-Praggnanandhaa, Niemann-Van Foreest, Keymer-Sindarov, and Oro-Woodward among the games to look forward to.
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.Â
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