India's Gukesh scored a win over compatriot Leon Mendonca in ninth round of the Tata Steel Masters to go clear at the top.

In Round 10 of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025, Gukesh Dommaraju retained his lead, defeating Max Warmerdam. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu outplayed

Praggnanandhaa will meet pre-event rating favourite Fabiano Caruana of United States while Abdusattorov has to tackle the solid defences of Vincent Keymer of Germany in the other key clashes of the 11th round.

D Gukesh has secured the sole lead at the ongoing Tata Steel Chess Masters 2025 after beating Leon Luke Mendonca in round nine. This is Gukesh’s first tournament since becoming the world chess champion.

Gukesh Dommaraju has taken the lead in the Tata Steel Chess Masters standings after defeating compatriot Leon Luke Mendonca. In other matches, Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew against Fabiano Caruana, while Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was defeated by Anish Giri.

Gukesh now sits half a point ahead of Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while R Praggnanandhaa holds third place with 6.5 points

R Praggnanandhaa came up with a dominating performance against Vladimir Fedoseev who chose the Tarrasch defense as black.

With five wins and five draws, world champion D Gukesh has remained unbeaten in the first major tournament of the year and if he adds another 1.5 points in the last three rounds, it should be enough to lift the title.

After beating Mendonca in the ninth round to take the solo lead, D Gukesh said he was happy with the way he was playing at the Tata Steel Masters.