India hosts the event from a position of unprecedented strength with a string of titles under its belt.
Reigning world chess champion D Gukesh has stated that he is open to competing in all formats of chess, including the newly popular freestyle format, but believes that classical chess, with its rich history, will always hold the greatest significance. Despite concerns of a potential split in the sport between supporters of freestyle and classical chess, Gukesh sees no reason for division, highlighting the excitement of freestyle while acknowledging the importance of the traditional format's legacy.
Grandmaster R Praggnanadhaa played out a solid draw with World champion D Gukesh in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Masters.
Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated Russia's Vladislav Artemiev in the 15th and final round of the preliminary phase of the Airthings Masters.
R Praggnanandhaa was the best Indian with an overall third place finish
R Praggnanandhaa, who drew with Wei Yi of China in the sixth round, is the joint leader in the Tata Steel chess tournament.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated compatriot Pentala Harikrishna, while Arjun Erigaisi settled for a draw in the second round of 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
India's Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi edged out fellow teenager Christopher Yoo in the quarter-finals via tie-breaker to reach the last four round of the Julius Baer Generation Cup online rapid chess tournament on Friday.
Continuing his good run, India's teen prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa registered wins against fellow Grandmasters Andrey Esipenko and Alexandra Kosteniuk in rounds 10 and 12 of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament.
Interestingly, all of R Praggnanandhaa's victories have come at the expense of the Indians so far in the tournament.
Erigaisi is two points clear of Praggnanandhaa and world champion Carlsen (15 points).
Harikrishna started with a draw against England's Michael Adams and posted wins over Alexander Donchenko and Noel Studer of Switzerland in the second and third rounds respectively.
Carlsen, whose form has been up and down in the preliminary phase, took the fifth place with 26 points. He tripped Duda in the final round after settling for draws in rounds 13 and 14 against Daniel Naroditsky and Giri.
Magnus Carlsen concluded the first nine rounds with an impressive 6.5 points out of a possible 9.
India's top player and Asian Games gold medallist Koneru Humpy, who had come back into medal contention after a modest performance on day two, had to settle for the sixth place though she logged eight points.
He finished 11th in the standings with 19 points with the top eight going through to the knockout phase at the ongoing Airthings Masters.
Teenaged Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh upset Magnus Carlsen in the ninth round of the preliminary phase of the Aimchess Rapid online chess tournament, becoming the youngest to beat the World champion.
Apart from a place in the Candidates to be played in April next year in Canada, Vaishali got richer by US$25000 (Over Rs 20 Lakhs) while Vidit took home a whopping prize purse of US$80000 (Over Rs 66 Lakhs).
India 'B' defeated Germany 3-1 in their final round match to end at third position.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.
Vidit Gujrathi crashed through the defences of Hans Moke Niemann of the United States to join the leaders' pack on 4.5 points.
Anand played the Italian game with white pieces but could get little out of opening against Vituigov.
Fabiano Caruana of United States made sure of his maiden title after beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand gave a fine endgame lesson to young Alireza Firouzja, jumping to joint sixth position at the end of 11th round of Tata Steel Masters, in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, on Saturday. With his second victory, Anand clawed his way back to a fifty percent score and will now hope to end the tournament on a high. At just 16 years, Firouzja is less than one third of Anand's age, and the Indian ace showed that the Iranian still has a lot to learn.
Alireza Firouzja remained in joint lead with Caruana on 5.5 points and these two are now ahead of Wesley So of United States and Jorden Van Foreest of Holland.
Anand has been trying to play very complicated positions and the sixth round was no different.
It was on move 21 that Giri thought he was out of trouble and proposed a draw.
The day produced four decisive games and it was again the youngsters who provided most of the entertainment.
Anand, as white, had simply an extra pawn and this is where the tenacity of Carlsen came to fore.
Anand moved to joint sixth spot with 2.5 points on a day that saw Firouzja Alireza scoring a sensational victory over super-solid Anish Giri of Holland.
Carlsen had previously indicated he would not consider the record truly broken until after two more games as he was not prepared to count two wins he had in the Norwegian league.
