Tata Steel Masters, Round 13 & Tiebreak

Gukesh loses a heartbreaker to Pragg.

Gukesh Dommaraju showed good nerves in his match with Ding Liren, but he was unable to rise to the occasion in the same way at the end of the Tata Steel Masters. Round 13 was a disaster for him, as a slight opening advantage disintegrated with stunning rapidity the instant he was out of preparation. He played a sideline against his countryman Arjun Erigaisi’s Petroff and was slightly better after 13 moves; so far, so good. His 14th move gave up the edge, his 16th move left him slightly worse, on move 18 his error left him nearly lost, and after move 20 the game was altogether gone. It’s the worst game I can recall him playing (at least in classical chess), and the loss came at a terrible time.

This meant that all Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu had to do was not lose against Vincent Keymer, and despite having the black pieces it looked for a long time as if he would achieve this goal. Unfortunately for Pragg, his 32nd move was a serious practical error, and the objective error two moves later left him in serious trouble. After a couple more errors after the time control there was no question about it: he was losing. From this point he defended well and Keymer couldn’t figure out the win, and probably running short of time and frustrated he chose a mistimed breakthrough strategy from moves 66-70. The last move in the sequence gave away the entire advantage, though the practical burden remained on Pragg. The changed situation may have confused him, and he too was short of time. He held for a while, but his 76th move was a fatal error, and this time Keymer reeled in his prey.

That left a two-way tie for first, and it could have been a three-way tie had Nodirbek Abdusattorov won his game against Pentala Harikrishna. He certainly tried, but Harikrishna played well and guaranteed that tournament victory would go to one of his countrymen and not to his Uzbek opponent.

Aside from the leaders’ losses there was only one decisive game: Fabiano Caruana was outplayed by Max Warmerdam - who had Black, too - and lost, finishing with a -1 score. Not a good event for the now-former world #2. Here are the standings after round 13:

(1-2) Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa 8.5 (out of 13)

(3) Abdusattorov 8

(4) Fedoseev 7.5

(5-6) Giri, Wei Yi 7

(7) Harikrishna 6.5

(8-9) Caruana, Keymer 6

(10-12) Erigaisi, Van Foreest, Sarana 5.5

(13) Mendonca 5

(14) Warmerdam 4.5

It was on to tiebreaks for Gukesh and Pragg, starting with a pair of 3’+2” blitz games. Gukesh won the first one with White when Pragg walked into an elementary tactic in an equal position. Pragg struck back in game two when Gukesh turned a very good position into a very bad one thanks to a long and ineffective knight maneuver. He had a one-move chance to equalize later, but that opportunity was missed and Pragg was ultimately the deserved winner of the game, tying the mini-match at one point apiece.

The next stage was sudden death: White would play with two and a half minutes to Black’s three, with both sides still getting a two-second increment. In case of a draw the players would switch colors and do it again until there was a winner (or perhaps until the spirit of Carlsen-Nepo took over and they decided they would be co-champions). In the event there was only the one sudden-death game. Gukesh reached a pawn up ending that could “only” result in a win for him or a draw, at least 99 times out of 100. This was the 100th case. Gukesh tried too hard to keep the game going, and while he succeeded in that respect the result on the board was a disaster; Pragg won a game that even I would have drawn against him without any problem - but that’s because I would have been happy with the draw. We’ve all chased the vanishing smoke of a winning or advantageous position that has drifted away, and if we chase that smoke for too long we can end up losing. That’s what happened to Gukesh, and when it was all over he sat at the board for a while, stunned and distraught.

Congratulations to Praggnanandhaa on his gutsy win in the tournament, and condolences to Gukesh on the gut-wrenching loss. I hope he bounces back soon and continues to play at the remarkable level he has shown the past year (and beyond), and showed in the first 11 3/4 rounds of this tournament as well.

Here are the games (with my comments) from the final day - from 13 and the tiebreaker.