GMs Viswanathan Anand and Nihal Sarin ended day two of 2026 Tata Steel Chess India in the shared lead with 4.5 points out of six games. Anand lost his first game against GM Arjun Erigaisi but bounced back with two wins, while Nihal won all three of his games to catch up.
Undefeated GM Kateryna Lagno wrested the lead from IM Carissa Yip in the Women’s 2026 Tata Steel Chess India, winning two games and drawing one to finish on 4.5 points. Yip, who won her last game against IM Vantika Agrawal, is in sole second.
Day three starts on Friday, January 9, from 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.
Open Rapid: Anand Bounces Back, Nihal Catches Up
Anand and Nihal lead the event with three rounds to go. GM Wesley So is in sole second, and there is a group of three players a half-point behind him.
Open Standings After Round 6
Round four ensured the day would start with chaos in the standings when both the leaders, Anand and Niemann, lost. Trailing GMs Vidit Gujrathi and So drew their game, and Nihal and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won, so that when the smoke cleared all six players were tied in the lead.
Anand, up a clear exchange in that round, seemed poised for an easy win against Arjun. But as Aron Nimzowitsch wrote a long time ago, the passed pawn is a criminal that must be kept under lock and key. 52.Ra5? was a tragic square for Anand to put his rook on, and he lost it in another two moves.
Anand would, however, bounce back with wins against Niemann and Murzin. Asked by Chess.com’s IM Rakesh Kulkarni how it feels to pull off the comeback, he said, “It feels like I’m doing something that I’ve been doing for my whole life!”
It feels like I’m doing something that I’ve been doing for my whole life!
—Viswanathan Anand
The direct encounter against co-leader Niemann was an important one, and after aggressive opening play with Black Anand took it after trading into a favorable endgame, though it was far from perfect. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.
Anand won again against Murzin with opposite-color bishops in a heavy-piece endgame, allowing for a one-sided attack. This allowed the Indian “godfather of chess” (as GM Sahaj Grover called him on air yesterday) to remain in the lead, while the 2024 rapid world champion remained in last place on 0.5 points, the same as yesterday.
“I think the positive and negative almost balance each other now!” said Anand.
Circling back to round four, co-leader Niemann lost against Nihal after sacrificing his knight for an attack, but one that stopped dead in its tracks with 21.Re5!.
This first game was the stepping stone for Nihal’s hat trick, while Niemann would go on to lose to Anand but make a partial recovery with a win against Wei in the last round.
Nihal used a number of pins to defeat Murzin in round five and then outplayed Vidit in a knight endgame where both players were under 20 seconds.
Thus, the group of six players leading after round four was reduced to just two, and So was the only player to secure a spot in sole second. He drew Vidit, beat Aravindh with a checkmating attack in the endgame, and finally drew Praggnanandhaa in a puzzling final encounter.
A strange moment as Praggnanandhaa stops the clock with a second to spare as he doesn’t have enough time to queen — the commentators expect a win for So, but the game is given as a draw! https://t.co/DKv5QlTGWN pic.twitter.com/HXztIYtQeK
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 8, 2026
So could have perhaps emerged from this game with a half-point more, as commentator Sahaj explained the American had the right to claim a win. Instead, it looked like So offered a draw to avoid any controversy, and so both players received a half-point.
So spoke to Chess.com’s Rakesh after the game and explained that his opponent intended to promote a pawn into a queen, but couldn’t find a queen nearby. In a panic, he paused the clock to find an arbiter. But So added:
I think Magnus did that twice in the World Blitz and he lost a game, so I thought I would win, but the arbiter was only granting me a minute or two. I guess I could complain and probably get the win, but I want to win the game, the position, I don’t want to win with technicalities.
We will have a winner in both tournaments on Friday, after three more rounds. Both leaders have the black pieces: Nihal against Praggnanandhaa, and Anand against Vidit.
Round 7 Open Pairings
Women’s Rapid: Lagno Takes Over After Yip’s Loss
Lagno’s in first, Yip is in second, and Dzagnidze is in sole third.
Women’s Rapid After Round 6
Lagno started her day with a win against 2024 Rapid winner Goryachkina—a player who went undefeated in 2024 but has now sunk to a second loss. The passed pawn as a “criminal” was again a theme in this game, as Lagno shifted between threatening checkmates and pushing her passed pawn to gain the point.
After a draw with GM Divya Deshmukh (95 accuracy, though Yip was winning for a single move in the king and pawn endgame), Yip dropped in the standings with a loss to Dzagndidze. After a miscalculation in the opening by her opponent, Dzagnidze won a pawn and never let go of the winning advantage.
Yip still won her last game against Vantika, who’s left in a tie with Goryachkina on three points. Lagno and Yip look the most likely to win, though a lot can happen in three more rounds in rapid chess.
Lagno has the white pieces against debutant WGM Rakshitta Ravi, while Yip will have the black pieces against GM Vaishali Rameshbabu.
Round 7 Women’s Pairings
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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