World champion Gukesh reacts after losing the Tata Steel chess title to Praggnanandhaa in the rapid tiebreaks. (Photo: Lennart Ootes via Tata Steel Chess)
As Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh ground it out in three tiebreak games to decide the winner of the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee on Sunday, many people joked about how the two Indians could have just taken a leaf out of Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi’s book to share the title as the two stalwarts had done at the FIDE World Blitz Championship in December.
During the FIDE World Blitz Championship in New York, Carlsen had suggested to Nepomniachtchi that they share the title after they had played a few tiebreak games. Then a clip had surfaced where Carlsen could be heard light-heartedly suggesting to Nepo that they play out draws until FIDE agree to allow them to share the World Blitz title. This had caused a big furore in chess world, with Carlsen then having to defend himself as people started accusing him of impropriety.
For Pragg, the title was hard-earned. He first ground it out for over six hours in the classical format against Vincent Keymer. Then he had to play three rapid games against Gukesh after barely a 30-minute break.
World champion Gukesh reacts after losing the Tata Steel chess title to Praggnanandhaa in the rapid tiebreaks. (Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit via Tata Steel Chess)
This led to references were made to the Carlsen-Nepo deal, as people joked about how the two Indians could have also taken the easy way out and played out draws till they shared the title.
“It’s late in Chennai.. co-champions maybe?” Joked Anish Giri who was also a part of the masters section.
“‘In case of a tie, there will be sudden death blitz games played till someone wins’: ripe rules for a ‘we can just play short draws until they give up’. PS – just kidding,” wrote GM Srinath Narayanan on X.
The tiebreak rules for Tata Steel chess tournament said that if two players had the same number of points after 13 games, they would play a rapid tiebreak match of two games. If those two games did not decide a winner, then there would be sudden death, with players playing single games to decide the winner.
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Pragg blundered a rook to hand Gukesh a win with white pieces in the first game in the tiebreak. Then, he defeated Gukesh to force the matter into sudden death! In the sudden death game, Pragg defeated Gukesh again to claim the much-coveted Tata Steel chess title.
