Chess
Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee: Praggnanandhaa registers his first win in round 9
He defeated Aravindh Chithambaram in an all-Indian game to join Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh in tied 9th place with 4 points.
R Praggnanandhaa register his first win in round 9 of Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 2026. (Photo credit: Michal Walusza/FIDE)
GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa finally ended his long wait for a win at the Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee 2026, with a round 9 victory in the Netherlands on Tuesday.
After six consecutive draws, Pragg played out a brilliant game to take a fighting 84-move win against Aravindh Chithambaram in an all-Indian match-up.
With this win, he joined his compatriots Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh Dommaraju in joint 9th place with just 4 points from 9 games, trailing the leader, Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), by 2 points.
Meanwhile, with this loss, Aravindh stayed at the bottom of the ladder with just 2.5 points from his 9 games and is now officially knocked out of the title race.
On the other hand, World Champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju's topsy-turvy run continued as he faced yet another defeat in round 9 against Matthias Bluebaum of Germany.
This was his third defeat in the last 5 games, having wins in the other two against Thai Dai Van Nguyen of Czechia and Vladimir Fedossev of Slovenia in rounds 5 & 8, respectively.
Whereas GM Arjun Erigaisi, having white pieces, played a very short 22-move draw against American grandmaster Hans Niemann after a 3-fold repetition.
Arjun will next take on Germany's Vincent Keymer in round 10, whereas Gukesh is set to face 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus of Turkiye on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Aravindh will next take on Thai Dai Van Nguyen of Czechia, while Praggnandhaa will take on Hans Niemann, hoping to continue his winning momentum.