The 87th edition of the prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament took place from 18th of January to 2nd of February in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
The event was played with Masters and Challengers fields, including some of the world’s best players. Each section featured 14 players who competed over 13 round-robin rounds.
The Winner of the Masters event was determined after playoffs, since Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa tied for the top scoring 8.5/13 points each. Gukesh suffered a loss in the final round against Arjun Erigaisi, leaving Praggnanandhaa to play against Vincent Keymer for the sole first place. However, Praggnanandhaa lost his game too, and the playoff match was scheduled to determine the Winner of this edition of the Wimbledon of Chess.

The blitz playoffs opened with Praggnanandhaa losing the first game against Gukesh, but the former bounced back in the second game to equalize the score. Having White pieces in the sudden death game, Praggnanandhaa took a win and clinched the title.

Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Aydin Suleymanli tied for first in the Challengers event, scoring 9.5/13 points each. Thai Dai Van Nguyen had better tiebreaks to clinch gold and qualified for the next edition of the Tata Steel Masters, and Aydin Suleymanli finished second. Erwin L’Ami scored 8.5 points and won bronze.

Final rankings can be found here.
Detailed information and results can be found on the Official website.
Photos by Tata Steel Chess/ Jurriaan Hoefsmit and Lennart Ootes