Despite beating reigning world champion D Gukesh in the blitz tie-breaks to to win the prestigious Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, R Praggnanandhaa will not be in action in the opening event of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Germany.

After losses in Round 13, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa played out a tie-breaker in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, with the former coming good in sudden-death to win.

In the second game, Gukesh had a fine position but was gradually outplayed. In the third game, the decider, Praggnanandhaa was again on the defensive with his white pieces but then found some nice moves and Gukesh got overambitious in a position that would have been a draw otherwise.