Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee: D Gukesh faces first defeat in round 6

GM Gukesh Dommaraju faced his first defeat of the tournament in round 6 of the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands on Friday.

Fresh from his first win in the previous round, Gukesh could not continue the momentum and bowed down to Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan with the black pieces.

With this defeat, Gukesh has now dropped out of the top 5 with just 3 points from 6 games, trailing the leader Nodirbek by a big 1.5-point margin.

Meanwhile, GM Praggnandhaa played his fourth consecutive draw of the tournament against Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia in his sixth-round match-up.

The defending champion now has 2/6, currently sitting outside the top 10 at the almost halfway stage of the tournament, with 7 more rounds to go.

GM Arjun Erigaisi, having black pieces, has also drawn his game against Matthias Bluebaum of Germany in a fully exchanged position with just two kings on the board.

Having won just half a point from the last two games, Arjun is also sitting outside the top 5 with 3 points and will need a couple of wins to come back into the title race

On the other hand, GM Aravindh Chithambram drew his game against Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov, ending his two-match losing streak.

He will next take on Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands in round 7 on Saturday. Meanwhile, Arjun will take on Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus of Turkiye.

On the other hand, Gukesh will aim to return to the top of the standings with a win against Dutch GM Anish Giri, while Pragg is set to face Germany's Matthias.