GM Wesley So leads at the halfway point of 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Open Blitz with seven points out of nine games. After blundering into a mate-in-one the first game, So stormed back to snatch the lead from GM Arjun Erigaisi, who started with a perfect 5/5.
So’s fellow American, IM Carissa Yip, leads 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Women’s Blitz with six points out of nine. As she started with a four-game winning streak, even two losses in rounds five and six didn’t stop her from finishing the day in pole position.
The blitz tournaments conclude on Sunday, January 11, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.
Open Blitz: Arjun Starts Strong, So Finishes Better
The standings are much more defined in the Open than in the Women’s. So leads, with Arjun a half-point behind, and GM Nihal Sarin a full point behind Arjun.
Open Blitz Standings After Round 9
Day one of the Open Blitz was a tale of two halves. Arjun dominated the first five rounds with a perfect score, but the second half belonged to So.
Arjun checkmated GM Volodar Murzin in round one, outplayed GM Wei Yi in a queenless middlegame in round two, trapped Nihal’s knight in round three, and played what IM Tania Sachdev called the move of the day against GM Viswanathan Anand in round four. 33…Qc8!! was a seemingly out-of-the-blue queen sacrifice, possible thanks to the checkmate threat on g1.
He then defeated GM Aravindh Chithambaram before round six against So, who had a lousy start in game one but bounced back with astounding force. So even smiled when he allowed a self-mate against GM Vidit Gujrathi with 59…Rg4??.
But that ended up being So’s only loss. He made two draws and won every other game, with a five-game winning streak from rounds four through eight and a 2908 performance rating.
The American’s nicest win came against Anand in round five, a game he won in just 20 moves. A Najdorf Sicilian featured opposite-sides castling and sacrificial play, with So’s last move also being another strong contender for the move of the day. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the full, albeit short, game below.
So won the direct encounter with Arjun when his opponent miscalculated or misevaluated a trade of two bishops for a rook; the minor pieces were stronger and immediately won material. And it was in the next round, after winning against Aravindh (in another opposite-sides castling Sicilian), that So caught Arjun in the lead on 5.5/7.
So took the lead when he ended up on the better side of a checkmate-in-two blunder by GM Hans Niemann in the penultimate round and then drew GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in round nine.
Though Arjun had a slower second half, he’s still just a half-point short of the lead. A single king move in the opposite-color bishop endgame against Niemann in round seven could have made that difference, though both players were under 10 seconds by this point.
Arjun lost against Praggnanandhaa in a time scramble, and in that same round, Anand won a sparkling attacking game with a piece sacrifice against Vidit. Recapturing on c3 was fine and winning, but why settle when you can go for it with 21.f6!?
The final round against Vidit was nearly a catastrophe for Arjun. In a completely winning position, up an exchange, Arjun accidentally knocked over his opponent’s pawn and king and hit the clock without fixing the position. Vidit called the arbiter, though the game resumed and Arjun got the full point.
Arjun almost suffered disaster after knocking over pieces in a totally won position, but in the end the game restarted & he scored a crucial win and finishes the day in 2nd only half a point behind Wesley So! https://t.co/ltThyWrBJs pic.twitter.com/vrb3XW4Meb
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 10, 2026
With nine more rounds of blitz, So’s lead is far from solidified. Tania speculated on the broadcast that even the players on 3.5 points—Wei and Niemann—have a theoretical chance of catching up on day two, so there’s all to play for. They’ll play the round-robin once again but with the reverse colors from today.
Women’s Blitz: Yip Leads Again
Although (seventh seed!) Yip leads, the chasing pack is much closer in the Women’s. IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, and GM Vaishali Rameshbabu are just a half-point behind.
Women’s Blitz Standings After Round 9
Yip led the Rapid tournament after day one as well but couldn’t hold onto it. We’ll see if she can pull it off in the Blitz, which is just two days and not three.
The American IM had already broken into the sole lead in round two when she scored back-to-back wins against GMs Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali. Against Harika, Yip played a powerful piece sacrifice and won with the classy, decisive 25…Qc7! much later.
Even two losses were not enough to stop Yip as she bounced back with a win against GM Kateryna Lagno—number-one seed and arguably the favorite to win the event—and drew her last two games.
IM Vantika Agrawal faced a dangerous attack in the round-six game against Yip but successfully defended to win the game. She first won a piece and then the queen when Yip went too far in her attack.
More than Yip’s lead, Lagno’s tough start is probably the biggest surprise of the day. She lost four games, drew two, and won three. The loss against Vaishali, the closest Indian player to the lead, in round five featured an uncommon tactical motif, the triple fork, followed much later by an uncommon checkmate at the end of the game.
With nine rounds to go, there is still plenty of time for Lagno and others to find their footing. Will Yip hold onto the lead, or will someone else have a better day two? Tune in on the final day to find out!
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.
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