GM Nihal Sarin won the 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Open Rapid tournament with 6.5 points out of nine games on Friday. It’s his second time winning the tournament, the first being in 2022, and he earns $10,000. He dedicated his victory to his recently deceased grandfather, who taught him how to play chess.
Undefeated GM Kateryna Lagno, who took the lead yesterday, won Women’s 2026 Tata Steel Chess India with a round to spare and a final score of 6.5 points. She earns $10,000 as well as her first Rapid title, though she won the Blitz in 2024.
There are two days of blitz next. Day one is on Saturday, January 10, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.
Open Rapid: Nihal Earns 2nd Title
Nihal took sole first, while GM Viswanathan Anand finished second, and we had a tie between GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Wesley So, and Hans Niemann in third-fifth. It is a third tournament in a row where Arjun has finished in third place.
Open Standings After Round 9
Nihal did the heavy-lifting on day two of this tournament, when he won all three games to catch Anand in the lead. He told IM Tania Sachdev, “As they say, all that matters in chess is who makes the last blunder. Luckily, in those games it was not me!”
What was the secret sauce? Well, he said he prepared for five minutes for day one—and on day two he “did not even do that.”
As they say, all that matters in chess is who makes the last blunder.
—Nihal Sarin
On day three, his win over So in the penultimate round was what pushed him a half-point ahead of Anand, who made three draws.
Round seven for Nihal, the first of the day, was a 99% accurate draw with Praggnanandhaa, but in round eight, So’s aggressive attempt in the opening gave Nihal the chance he needed. It was a Vienna Opening gone terribly wrong for White, and Nihal in fact won without ever developing the rook or bishop from the queenside—or the pawns!
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below, and it was just 23 moves. It was after this win that Nihal said he “now had a chance for first.”
Niemann was briefly in the conversation, with regard to an overall winner, when he beat GM Aravindh Chithambaram in round seven, but a loss against Arjun in round eight meant we were left with a two-horse race between Nihal and Anand. Niemann ultimately finished in the tie on five points, while Aravindh came in last.
Anand, a half-point behind Nihal, finally got his direct encounter with the leader in the last round. A win on demand with the black pieces would have seen the five-time world champion leapfrog his opponent, but it wasn’t meant to be; he didn’t get a smidgeon of a chance to overcome the solid Four Knights Scotch.
The victory was bittersweet. Nihal learned his maternal grandfather, who taught him chess, passed away the night before. He dedicated the tournament win to his grandfather and said, “He’s the reason I got into chess in the first place.” On Anand’s impressive form at the age of 56, Nihal said he was “absolutely not surprised” and that “the class is permanent.”
With first place settled, the fight for second and third was still on. With a win, Arjun could have finished on six points like Anand, but he fell victim to a resurging GM Volodar Murzin. 11…b4? was a pivotal mistake that relinquished control of the c4-square, a territory that would prove critical for the white victory.
The 2024 rapid world champion finished on a high note with three consecutive wins, after starting the event with just 0.5 points in the first six games. At 3.5 points, he and GM Wei Yi finished two points above Aravindh.
Though Wei Yi finished at the bottom half of the standings, he played a pivotal role in the fight for third by denying GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. His win had a cinematic finish:
So and Niemann made a draw while, despite the loss to Murzin, Arjun still finished in the three-way tie of players with five points. Praggnanandhaa and GM Vidit Gujrathi were left a half-point behind.
To follow up on the controversial finish of So vs. Praggnanandhaa in yesterday’s game, where Praggnanandhaa stopped the clock as he searched for a queen, the American grandmaster made the following post.
Regarding my game with Pragg yesterday, I was the one who proposed to draw the game, not the arbiters. Things happened so fast and everyone did what seems best at the moment.😀 Criticizing the arbiters are uncalled for. Big congrats to @NihalSarin for dominating the rapid!
— Wesley So (@WesleySo_) January 9, 2026
The action in Kolkata doesn’t end here, however, as there are now two days of blitz coming up.
Women’s Rapid: Undefeated Lagno Wins With Round To Spare
While the Open tournament had a closer fight this year, Lagno ran away with it in the Women’s. She lapped the field with a full 1.5-point lead.
Women’s Rapid Standings After Round 9
Lagno started the day with a win against WGM Rakshitta Ravi and, with a draw against Yip, clinched the title with a round to spare. One mistake by Rakshitta in the endgame allowed Lagno to show the trickiness of knights in faster time controls.
Thanks to that early win, Lagno was a point and a half ahead of GM Nana Dzagnidze and IM Carissa Yip entering round eight. When Dzagnidze drew IM Vantika Agrawal and Lagno drew against Yip, it meant the Russian 36-year-old had won the tournament with a round to spare.
“Of course I’m very happy!” she told Chess.com’s IM Rakesh Kulkarni, adding, “It’s been a while that I didn’t play well in rapid, so of course today I’m very satisfied with my play.” The three-time world blitz champion is understandably excited for the blitz portion, where she looks to be the favorite.
Though she didn’t defend her title this year, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina finished in sole second after drawing Dzagnidze and IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, then beating Vantika in the last round—after a crazy opening variation where she offered up her a8-rook as a sacrifice.
With both Dzagnidze and Yip losing in the final round, respectively against GMs Vaishali Rameshbabu and Harika Dronavalli, we were left with a massive five-player tie on 4.5 points.
The slate is wiped clean on Saturday, and all players start the next tournament again with zero points. Lagno defends her blitz title from the last edition while the Open will have a new champion, with last year’s victor GM Magnus Carlsen not participating.
Tata Steel Chess India 2026 takes place January 7-11 in Kolkata, India and features an Open and a Women’s section, each consisting of 10 players and with the same prize fund. The first three days of rapid chess (first prize $10,000) are a single round-robin with 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment/move time control. The last two days of blitz (first prize $7,500) are a double round-robin at a 3+2 time control.
Previous coverage:
