Bluebaum, Keymer, Gukesh, Aravindh win @ Wijk aan Zee

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov made a fighting draw against GM Vladimir Fedoseev maintaining his lead with 6.5 points after the tenth round of the 88th TATA Steel Masters Chess tournament 2026 at the traditional De Moriaan Community Centre, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov is closely followed by GMs Javokhir Sindarov, Matthias Bluebaum & Jorden van Foreest at 6.0 points. In the Challengers section, GM Aydin Suleymanli emerged the sole leader with a 8.0/10 score.  

In the game of the day, German Grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum came up with a stunning victory over FIDE Grand Swiss winner GM Anish Giri. The win carried GM Bluebaum across 2700 in LIVE rating and should be a big morale booster for the two time European Individual Champion. With Candidates round the corner the German has been sending quiet but strong signals of his presence.

In the Ruy Lopez closed game it was GM Vincent Keymer who set the ball rolling with some subtle plan that eluded GM Erigaisi Arjun. Shuffling his pieces steadily the German moved into a fine positional advantage as early as move 20. Incresing the advantage with every passing move Keymer made things difficult for black. In no time black’s position collapsed and Erigaisi gave up on the 41st turn. Three losses in the last six rounds saw Indian Grandmaster slide to World No. 7 in LIVE rankings. More importantly Erigaisi has thus far lost 18 precious ELO rating points which he badly needs to recoup. Rich in talent Erigaisi stands to meet GMs Sindarov, van Foreest and Abdusattorov in the final three rounds and would surely work to redeem himself.

World champion Gukesh Dommaraju put behind his defeat in the earlier round, accounting for the young Turkish talent GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş Four Knights Game that lasted 50 moves. A series of middle game exchanges saw the Turkish teenager missing a possible win. Not the one to let any half-chance go, Gukesh latched on an extra pawn in the rook ending coasting home to a good psychological win. For, the fortunes of either player was oscillating right through and the world champion showed he’s made of sterner stuff coming out the victor. The win should come as a relief to Gukesh who’s proceed into the final rest day with peace.

The last game to conclude in the Masters section saw Prague Masters Champion GM Aravindh Chithambaram ride his luck, scoring his first win of the tournament. In a game of fluctuating fortunes, it was the 2025 TATA Steel Challengers winner GM Nguyen Thai Dai Van who made the final and fatal mistake. Until then the game appeared to be a see-saw battle with the Czech Grandmaster holding the better of the winning chances. The Petroff game saw periodical exchanges and went even for close to five hours. But GM Nguyen found himself drastically low on time which resulted in faulty choices that led to defeat. For the Chennai based Grandmaster Aravindh this survival could be a turn-around with three rounds remaining.

Other games involving GMs Niemann – Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov – Fedoseev, Sindarov – van Foreest ended in draws. The 11th round resumes on Friday 30th January after the third and final rest day. After a day of rest, the eleventh round starts by Friday, 30th January at 8 AM ET/ 2 PM CET / 6:30 PM IST.

Pairings (Round 11): Erigaisi vs Sindarov, van Foreest vs Abdusattorov, Pragg vs Keymer, Nguyen vs Niemann, Gukesh vs Aravindh, Giri vs Erdogmus, Fedoseev vs Bluebaum.

Results (Masters Round 10):  Niemann (5.5) drew with Praggnanandhaa (4.5), Bluebaum (6.0) beat Giri (4.5), Abdusattorov (6.5) drew with Fedoseev (5.0), Erdogmus (5.5) lost to Gukesh (5.0), Sindarov (6.0) drew with van Foreest (6.0), Keymer (5.0) beat Erigaisi (4.0), Aravindh (3.5) beat Nguyen (3.0).

Results (Challengers Round 10): Yuffa (4.5) lost to Suleymanli (8.0), Assaubayeva (6.0) beat Roebers (1.0), L’Ami (4.0) beat Miaoyi (3.0), Ivanchuk (7.0) beat Woodward (7.5), Maurizzi (7.5) beat Panesar (3.0), Yip (5.0) drew with Oro (5.0), Ivic (4.0) drew with Warmerdam (4.5).

Matthias Bluebaum (2679) – Anish Giri (2760) 1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. e4 d6 4. Nc3 c5 5. d5 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 e5 7. dxe6 Bxe6 8. Bd3 Nf6 9. Ne2 Nh5 10. O-O Nc6 11. f4 Bd7 12. h3 Qe7 13. g4 Ng7 14. f5 Qh4 15. Nf4 h5 16. Ng2 Qxh3 17. Rf3 Qxg4 18. Be2 gxf5 19. Re3 Qg5 20. exf5+ Ne7 21. Qxd6 Bc6 22. Re4 Qxg2+ 23. Kxg2 Bxe4+ 24. Kf2 Bxf5

25. Bg5 1-0

Vincent Keymer (2776) – Erigaisi Arjun (2775) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Bb7 10. Re1 Na5 11. Bc2 c5 12. Nbd2 Qc7 13. Nf1 Rfe8 14. Ne3 h6 15. Nh2 c4 16. Qf3 cxd3 17. Bxd3 h5 18. Nf5 g6 19. Nxe7+ Qxe7 20. Bg5 Kg7 21. Rad1 Qe6 22. Bb1 Rad8 23. Qg3 Nc4 24. b3 Nb6 25. f4 exf4 26. Qxf4 Rd7 27. Qf2 Nh7 28. Bf4 Nc8 29. Nf3 Kg8 30. Qg3 Rde7 31. Nd4 Qf6 32. Nf5 Re6 33. Rf1 h4 34. Qg4 Qxc3 35. Bd2 Qb2 36. Nh6+ Kh8 37. Nxf7+ Kg7 38. Nd8 R6e7 39. Nxb7 Rxb7 40. Be3 Nf6

41. Qxh4 1-0

Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş (2658) – Gukesh Dommaraju (2754) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bb4 5. O-O O-O 6. Nd5 Nxd5 7. exd5 e4 8. Ne1 Nd4 9. a4 Nxb5 10. axb5 c6 11. c3 Bc5 12. d3 cxd5 13. Qb3 d6 14. Qxd5 Re8 15. dxe4 Be6 16. Qd3 Qc7 17. Be3 Bxe3 18. Qxe3 Bc4 19. Nd3 Bxb5 20. Rfe1 d5 21. Qc5 Qd7 22. Nb4 dxe4 23. c4 Ba4 24. Qa5 Bb3 25. Nd5 Bxc4 26. Nb6 axb6 27. Qxa8 Ba6 28. Rxa6 bxa6 29. Qxa6 Qd4 30. Qb5 Re5 31. Qb3 g6 32. Qc3 Qxc3 33. bxc3 Re6 34. Kf1 f5 35. f3 Kf7 36. fxe4 Rxe4 37. Rb1 Re6 38. c4 Ke7 39. Rb5 Rc6 40. Ke2 Kd7 41. Kf3 Kc7 42. Rb4 Rd6 43. Ra4 Kc6 44. Ra8 Kc5 45. Ra7 h5 46. Rc7+ Rc6 47. Rd7 Kxc4 48. Rd1 b5 49. Rc1+ Kd5 50. Rd1+

50…Kc5 0-1

Complete Results

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Photo courtesy: Lennart Ootes / TATA Steel Chess 2026