Praggnanandhaa defeats Caruana in Tata Steel Chess Round 11

In the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju maintained his half-point lead at the top with a comfortable draw against China’s Wei Yi after round 11 in Wijk Aan Zed, the Netherlands, yesterday. Meanwhile, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa outsmarted top seed and American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana to close in on the leader.

The draw helped Gukesh reach eight points out of a possible 11 in the first major tournament of the year. Praggnanandhaa, playing with the black pieces, stunned Caruana to move to 7.5 points, keeping him within striking



distance of Gukesh.

It was a good day for other Indian players as well. P. Harikrishna defeated Alexey Sarana of Serbia, while Leon Luke Mendonca triumphed over Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia. Arjun Erigaisi, on the other hand, played out another draw, this time against Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands.

Round 12 matches will be played today. The tournament features a 14-player single round-robin format, consisting of 13 rounds where each player faces every other player once.