Tata Steel Chess Rapid: Nihal Sarin denies Viswanathan Anand to be crowned champion

Nihal Sarin successfully held veteran Viswanathan Anand to a draw in the final round to be crowned the 2026 Tata Steel Chess rapid champion in Kolkata on Friday.

Nihal, who had a 0.5-point lead before the final round and only needed a draw to clinch the title, forced Anand to a comfortable draw in just 25 moves.

Anand, who returned to the Tata Steel Chess fold after a gap of six years, finished runner-up behind Nihal with 6 points in nine rounds.

Earlier in the day, Nihal played out a draw with Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and beat Volodar Murzin to stake his claim for the title.

Meanwhile Anand, who had the joint lead with Nihal before the start of the day, fell behind in the title race after both Vidit Gujrathi and Praggnanandhaa held him to a draw each in the seventh and eighth rounds.

The win marked a second Tata Steel rapid chess title for Nihal, having previously won the crown in 2022.

He wasn't the part of the original playing field for the tournament in this edition and was only invited as a replacement player after world champion Gukesh Dommaraju pulled out of the event citing personal reasons.

Nihal also had to face an emotional battle in the tournament with the news of his maternal grandfather's, who taught him the basics of chess, unfortunate death was conveyed to him at the end of play on Thursday.

Among the other Indians in action, Arjun Erigaisi finished third with five points, while Aravindh Chitambaram finished at the bottom with just 1.5 points. Praggnanandhaa and Gujrathi sixth and seventh respectively with 4.5 points apiece.

Kateryna Lagno crowned women's champion; Divya's stunning comeback

In the women's rapid event, a dominant Kateryna Lagno was crowned the champion with 6.5 points in nine rounds. She finished the tournament unbeaten and had a one-and-a-half point lead over the second placed Aleksandra Goryachikna.

India's Divya Deshmukh, who sat the bottom of the table after the penultimate day's play, climbed up the ladder to finish third. She recorded a win each over Vantika Agrawal and Vaishali Rameshbabu, while playing out a draw with Lagno on the final day to finish with 4.5 points.

Vaishali and veteran Harika Dronavalli also finished the event with 4.5 points each, but were placed lower to Deshmukh due to their inferior tiebreak scores.

Agrawal, meanwhile, finished on the bottom of the pile along with Rakshitta Ravi with 3.5 points.