World champion D Gukesh and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa lost on a dramatic final day but still set up a tie-breaker at the end of the 13th and final round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament here on Sunday. Gukesh lost his first game as the world champion, bowing to some energetic play by compatriot Arjun Erigaisi while Praggnanandhaa went down against Vincent Keymer, whose technique was impeccable on the final day. Interestingly enough, the chess buffs were reminded of the 2013 Candidates tournament where Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia were leading together but both lost.
Carlsen won on tie-break and went on to beat Viswanathan Anand to be crowned the world champion for the first time.
Despite the loss, Praggnanandhaa will play tie-break games of shorter duration against Gukesh after the two ended with identical 8.5 points each. The other contender Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan was denied the full point by P Harikrishna, who played a hard fought draw.
In the tiebreaker, the players will play two games of three minutes each with a two seconds increment after every move. If the result is still tied then sudden-death games will be played until a winner is found.
Gukesh's ambition to play out of the rule book did not pay dividends as Erigaisi, playing black, was up to the task in a Petroff defense game. Both players castled on opposite flanks and the dynamics turned in Erigaisi's favour as he opened up the king side before his king came under serious scrutiny.
Gukesh tried some tricks but it was simply not his day. To Erigaisi's credit, he turned a forgettable performance into something really worthwhile by winning the last two rounds. In the 12th and penultimate round, Erigaisi had beaten
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