India’s struggles at Wijk aan Zee: 3 wins in 33 games between Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Aravindh Chitambaram | Chess News
3 min readJan 31, 2026 12:13 PM IST
India’s top chess players endured another wretched day at the office in Round 11 of the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee with Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi suffering defeats and world champion D Gukesh being held to a draw by Aravindh Chitambaram after having a significant edge in the game. Pragg lost to German grandmaster Vincent Keymer while Arjun was beaten by World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov.
Friday’s results meant that between the three of them, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun and Aravindh have had three wins in 33 classical games at Wijk aan Zee, with two of those wins coming over Indian players itself. Meanwhile, despite all the scrutiny of his results as the world champion, Gukesh has racked up three wins in his 11 rounds.
The world champion may have lost three games at Wijk, but he’s the top ranked Indian player in the Tata Steel masters standings with 5.5 points. With two more rounds left Praggnanandhaa (4.5 points), Arjun (4 points) and Aravindh (4 points) are among the bottom four players in the standings.
INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh was held to a draw by Aravindh
The way Arjun and Pragg have lost rating points at the Wijk aan Zee event, there is a possibility that the semi-retired Viswanathan Anand might find himself as the top rated Indian player in the live ratings ( which are updated in real time) in two more days when the event ends. Arjun is currently India’s top rated player with 2751 in the live ratings while Gukesh is at 2748. Arjun is world no 10 in the live ratings while Gukesh is 11. Anand, with a rating of 2743, is wedged between Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa (live rating of 2742) on 12th spot.
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In 11 rounds, Arjun has won just once, when he defeated good friend and compatriot Pragg in the first round. Since that initial victory, he’s lost 29 rating points in Wijk aan Zee, thanks to four defeats and six draws. Overall, Arjun’s rating is eroded by 24 points in a stormy Wijk campaign.
INTERACTIVE: How Arjun lost to Javokhir Sindarov
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Praggnanandhaa has also had one win in 11 rounds, over Aravindh who is also a product of the RB Ramesh’s chess academy. The other 10 games for Pragg have ended in three defeats and seven draws, six of which came in a row.
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INTERACTIVE: How Praggnanandhaa lost to Vincent Keymer
Meanwhile, world champion Gukesh, despite losing three games, has dropped just six rating points over 11 rounds. He’s lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum, the latter two will play in the Candidates in two months time to try and earn the right to challenge Gukesh at the World Championship later in the year.
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