Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:Tata Steel Chess 2026 Round 6: Abdusattorov Pounces On Gukesh’s Blunder To Grab Sole Lead– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov took advantage of a heartbreaking blunder in an equal position by World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju to take the sole lead in the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Masters on 4.5/6. GM Javokhir Sindarov is now half a point behind in second place after missing a win against GM Aravindh Chithambaram, while GM Hans Niemann was beaten and caught by GM Vincent Keymer. In the day’s other decisive game, 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus found a brilliant finish to defeat GM Jorden van Foreest and return to 50 percent.
GM Andy Woodward is the sole leader of the 2026 Tata Steel Chess Challengers after grinding down IM Carissa Yip in a 131-move queen endgame to notch a fifth win in a row. It was the day of the rating favorites, with wins for GM Max Warmerdam (vs. IM Faustino Oro), GM Daniil Yuffa (vs. IM Lu Miaoyi), GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (vs. IM Eline Roebers), GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi (vs. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva), and GM Velimir Ivic (vs. GM Erwin l’Ami).
Round seven starts on Saturday, January 24, at 8 a.m. ET/ 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.
Masters: Gukesh’s Heartbreak Gifts Abdusattorov Sole Lead
Tata Steel Masters: Round 6 Results
There were three wins in the Masters, and two very near misses.
Tata Steel Masters: Standings After Round 6
Abdusattorov was gifted the sole lead by Gukesh’s mistake, while Sindarov is in sole second place after a draw. Niemann lost and was caught by both GM Vladimir Fedoseev and Keymer in the tie for third place.
The key matchup of round six was between the world champion and the Uzbek number-one.
Abdusattorov 1-0 Gukesh
An intense clash looked set to end in a draw when suddenly, after thinking for three minutes and with five minutes left on his clock, Gukesh played a rook move that was losing on the spot to a trivial tactic. Gukesh realized what he’d done immediately, and Abdusattorov almost apologetically replied to a move he called “unexplainable.”
Gukesh makes a huge blunder and has to resign on the spot against Abdusattorov! pic.twitter.com/AbKfcBCRIz
— chess24 (@chess24com) January 23, 2026
A shell-shocked Gukesh put his head in his hands—an echo of when he blundered and lost to Abdusattorov in a game that ultimately determined the 2022 World Chess Olympiad—as he struggled to come to terms with what had happened.
Abdusattorov began his interview with WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni: “I feel very sorry for him—it’s a terrible feeling. I’ve done it myself many times. It’s an absolutely horrible feeling.”
I feel very sorry for him—it’s a terrible feeling.
—Nodirbek Abdusattorov
The blunder was all the more painful as at that stage the game was absolutely level after a period of play when it was the world champion who was pressing and trying to repeat the success of his win over Abdusattorov in their last classical clash, in the Sinquefield Cup. Abdusattorov commented: “At some point I think he was getting excited and he was obviously trying to push, but I controlled the margin. I thought I had a good margin to draw, and at the end he was getting low on time, and he felt nervous and he blundered horribly.”
Before the abrupt end, it had been a tense and well-played game.
Abdusattorov summed up: “After this kind of gift it’s a good feeling, but also it’s a sign that I have to improve my chess also. I don’t feel satisfied with my game today, so I try to play better.”
Abdusattorov took the sole lead, since neither of his two co-leaders could win. In fact, one of them, Niemann, lost to Keymer.
Niemann 0-1 Keymer
Keymer is the next opponent for Abdusattorov, and if he wins with White, he’ll catch the leader. He commented after beating Niemann: “Winning two in a row is great! I’m keeping small chances alive to fight for tournament victory, and tomorrow I’ve got a big clash with Nodirbek. Finally I’m more confident that I will be able to play well.”
Niemann’s ambition was evident when he rejected a draw by repetition, but his 22.d5?! pawn push was “very, very committal” according to Keymer (“Even if it’s good, I couldn’t get myself to play unless there’s some really immediate justification”), while 38.f4? led to almost immediate collapse.
Things got better for Abdusattorov when the other co-leader at the start of the day, Sindarov, also failed to win, though it was very close.
Aravindh, by putting his king on h3, had invited trouble and it came, but with 22 seconds to make the final move before the time control, Sindarov chose wrongly and had to take a draw instead of a win.
That wasn’t the day’s only miss, since GM Matthias Bluebaum achieved a completely winning position against GM Arjun Erigaisi, but the wild swings that followed illustrate how close to impossible it was to fathom what was going on without a computer (and even with one, it’s by no means simple).
There were two more draws, with GM Anish Giri and GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen making no real mistakes in a rook endgame despite mutual time trouble. GM Vladimir Fedoseev vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was arguably even less eventful, but it did have the bragging rights of the players continuing until a remarkable 122 moves had been played.
There was one more decisive game, however, with 14-year-old Erdogmus bouncing back to score his first-ever win in the Masters.
Erdogmus 1-0 Van Foreest
“It definitely feels very good; it’s very special for me!” said the Turkish youngster after the game.
His rest day spent preparing 4.h3 in the Four Knights was richly rewarded as he went on to play the Game of the Day, featuring some fine tactics toward the end. GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes the game below.
Challengers: Woodward Takes Sole Lead On Day Of Rating Favorites
We had another day of six decisive results in the Challengers, but this time all the wins came for the higher-rated player.
Tata Steel Challengers: Round 6 Results
Woodward’s fifth win in a row gave him the sole lead as his co-leaders couldn’t keep pace: GM Aydin Suleymanli was held to a draw, and Oro lost.
Tata Steel Challengers: Standings After Round 6
A three-way tie for the top had looked likely when IM Carissa Yip reached a queen endgame a pawn down against her compatriot GM Andy Woodward, but in the longest game of the event, she finally cracked and slipped to defeat.
When 119…e3! was allowed, things became tricky.
That means that since Woodward missed a win and lost in round one, he’s now won all five of his games.
Elsewhere all the wins came for the higher-rated players, even if they’d been struggling. Ivic had lost three games in a row, but he found the beautiful 27.Rc7!! against L’Ami.
Co-leader Oro was finally beaten, by the struggling Warmerdam, and Assaubayeva also suffered a first loss, despite having achieved a close-to-winning position out of the opening against Maurizzi, who discussed the game afterward.
Maurizzi has moved to within half a point of the leader.
Roebers fell to a fifth loss, this time to Ivanchuk, but was graceful enough to allow a nice checkmate on the board.
The game had essentially been decided by one mistake on move 24, but that didn’t stop Ivanchuk from showing it for 28 minutes—and needing to be gently ushered away from the stage at the end. Enjoy!
It’s going to be a big weekend of chess, with Woodward-Suleymanli a key clash in the Challengers on Saturday, while Keymer-Abdusattorov and Sindarov-Niemann are the biggest top-of-the-table battles in the Masters.
How To Watch
The 88th edition of Tata Steel Chess takes place January 17-February 1, 2026, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments. The time control is 120 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment only from move 41. No draw offers are allowed before move 40.
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