Tata Steel Chess India 2025

For five days every November, Kolkata becomes the centre of Indian chess. The 7th edition of Tata Steel Chess India — the world’s only mixed rapid-and-blitz round-robin at super-tournament strength — was, for the first time, decided not by Gukesh or Praggnanandhaa, but by the third member of India’s young triumvirate: Arjun Erigaisi.

Rapid and Blitz, combined

The format is, deliberately, unlike any other on the chess calendar. Each player plays every other player twice in rapid (15+10), then again twice in blitz (3+2). Rapid wins count for 2 points, blitz wins for 1. The overall winner is the player with the most combined points after eighteen games.

This rewards consistency across both speeds — and punishes the player who is brilliant at one but indifferent at the other. Carlsen, who has played the event only once (2019, when he won the blitz section comfortably and lost the rapid by a point), has been quietly clear about preferring single-speed events.

Arjun’s emergence

For two years, the Indian chess press has framed the young scene as a contest between Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa. Arjun Erigaisi — twenty-two, 2787 at the time of the tournament — was treated as a third name in the same conversation, but rarely the lead.

Tata Steel India 2025 was the tournament that changed this. Arjun won the rapid section outright (8.0/9, no losses), and his +5 in the blitz section was enough to hold off Gukesh by a clear point. The standings show how dominant the performance was: only one player in the field — Gukesh — finished within two points of him.

Indian chess, late 2025

By the close of the 2025 calendar, the top three Indian players by classical rating were Arjun Erigaisi (2787), Gukesh Dommaraju (2784, World Champion), and Praggnanandhaa (2762). Their average age: 21. The Indian press, which has been waiting for a generation to refer to as the next one, decided in November 2025 that this was that generation.

The 8th edition is scheduled for November 2026, again in Kolkata, with a confirmed return of all three Indian top boards.