Pragnaandhaa only needed a draw to clinch the title after 13 rounds itself but he lost to Germany's Vincent Keymer while Gukesh also went down to compatriot Arjun Erigaisi. This led to a tie between them and a tiebreak match was played to determine the winner. There was usual drama with both young players looking to win every match in this round.
In the opening game, Pragnanandhaa made a mistake that cost him the game as he met Benoni in reverse colours. However, the youngster used the Trompowsky opening in the second game and played the waiting game before eventually taking advantage of an unintentional mistake from Gukesh to make it 1-1 in the tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker then went into the sudden death where a player with white pieces got two minutes and 30 seconds and a player with black pieces got 3 minutes. In this battle of nerves, Gukesh lost his control while Pragnanandhaa, with his flawless technique won the Masters title for the first time in his career. For the second consecutive year, Gukesh lost the tiebreaker as he lost to China's Wei Yi in the previous tournament in 2024.
After winning the title, Pragnanandhaa joked about gifting his title to Arjun who surprisingly defeated Gukesh in the final round that took the tournament to the tiebreaker after 13 rounds. "Should probably by something for Arjun, yeah? I didn’t really expect (Arjun to beat Gukesh). Because at some point felt that Gukesh was actually better. When I saw the result (of Gukesh vs Arjun), I had already misplayed and I was in such a difficult position that I could not really do much than sit and defend. I didn’t think practically I had any chance in my own position," he said.
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