Tata Steel Masters: Gukesh beats Nguyen; Arjun shocked by Fedoseev

World champion D Gukesh ended his spate of draws by defeating Thai Dai Van Nguyen of Czech Republic but overnight joint leader Arjun Erigaisi was shocked by Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia in the fifth round of Tata Steel Masters chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.

Gukesh’s timely victory ahead of the first rest day on Thursday (January 22, 2026) put him on three points out of a possible five and the Indian ace went up to joint fourth spot behind three leaders.

While the game between Hans Niemann of the USA and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan ended in the draw, the two were joined by latter’s compatriot and World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov who defeated young Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus after some great resistance.

With three leaders on 3.5, Gukesh shares the fourth spot with Fedoseev and Dutchman Jorden van Foreest.

With nine rounds still to come in the 114-player and 13-round tournament, Erigaisi slipped to joint seventh spot on 2.5 points, a point ahead of two other Indians — Aravindh Chithambaram and R Praggnanandhaa.

Gukesh won with black pieces out of a Queen’s Indian defence game.

It was a highly technical battle with the Indian sacrificing a rook for a minor piece to exert pressure against the black king and Nguyen simply could not withstand the pressure. The game lasted 51 moves.

“It was a nice grind,” said the world champion, who also said that his slow four-draw start could have been much faster if not for a near miss against Sindarov in the first round.

“I was supposed to win the first one but I missed by a whisker. I’m pretty much happy with most of the games that I played so far. Although I didn’t get the win I knew I was playing good, so it was expected that I would get it at some point.”

“The one thing that helped [against Sindarov] was it was just so long I was too tired to be upset!”

Arjun faced a hugely risky variation as white by Fedoseev who has bounced back really well following an uncharacteristic loss in the opener against Niemann.

The strategy paid off as Arjun drifted in to a passive position in the middle game and his pieces got stuck in the centre. Making matters worse was his weak king and the Indian did not recover.

R Praggnanadhaa played his third draw in the event against Anish Giri of Holland and Aravindh Chithamabaram went down to German Vincent Keymer to remain on 1.5 points from his five games.

Results round 5 (Indians unless specified): R Praggnanandhaa (1.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 1.5); Arjun Erigaisi (2.5) lost to Vladimir Fedoseev (Slo, 3); Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Cze 1.5) lost to D Gukesh (3); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 3) drew with Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 2.5); Hans Moke Niemann (Usa, 3.5) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 3.5); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 2.5) beat Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5); Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 3.5) beat Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (Tur, 2).