Tata Steel Rd. 1: Three wins, four draws

The 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 15 to 31, 2016, in the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee, North Holland. It is one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The "Wimbledon of Chess" attracts the very best chess grandmasters in the world, along with thousands of amateur players, live event visitors and online visitors from around the world. The tournament has two main player groups, each with 14 players. They are known as the Tata Steel Masters and the Tata Steel Challengers. You will find the schedule, starting times, pairings and results at the bottom of the page.

Tata Steel 2016

Watch it live on Playchess!

Masters

The first game to end was the encounter between David Navara and Magnus Carlsen. In a game in which the most interesting lines remained hidden below the surface Navara had no problem to draw against the World Champion. With a mix of solid and aggressive play Navara gave Carlsen no a chance to get an advantage and in the end it was Carlsen who forced a repetition of moves.

Handshake before the game.

"I think it was an interesting game. ... But dangerous," was Carlsen post-game summary.

Anish Giri is considered to be one of the most solid players of the world's elite and it is no coincidence that he was the only player on the Grand Chess Tour who did not lose one single game. But in his game against Wesley So in the first round of Wijk aan Zee 2016 he had a bad day. So played with white and opted for the Botvinnik Variation of the English Opening, explaining after the game that "Anish is basically unbeatable in the opening and I thought I go for an opening that is not so theoretical." A successful choice. After about 20 moves it became apparent that all three minor pieces of Black had landed on bad positions standing badly. Giri tried to drum up some counterplay by pushing his pawns on the kingside and the queenside but this weakened both his position and his pawns. So gradually started to pick the weak pawns of Giri but carefully avoided to give Giri any chances. After 37 moves Giri resigned in a hopeless position.

Wesley So was not keen on a theoretical duel with Anish Giri.

Fabiano Caruana played a fine attacking game against Pavel Eljanov. After being surprised by Eljanov's opening choice Caruana decided to gambit a pawn to get attacking chances in an isolated queen's pawn position. White had compensation for the pawn but not more. However, the position was difficult to play for Black and after defending very precisely for most of the time Eljanov finally cracked, allowing White's attack to become overwhelming.

Caruana did not always like his position but he definitely
liked the end and the result of the game.

Ding Liren played a fine game against Michael Adams. The Chinese number one played an enterprising English Opening in which he sacrificed his a-pawn to shatter Black's queenside structure and to settle Black with doubled a-pawns. After an exchange of queens Ding Liren managed to win both a-pawns and emerged in an endgame rook, knight and four pawns on the kingside against rook, knight and three pawns on the kingside that he managed to win.

China's number one playing against England's number one.

Wei Yi and Evgeny Tomashevsky decided to play it safe in the first round and managed to quickly find a repetition of moves in an ueventful Closed Spanish. The result was a draw in 23 moves.

A safe start: Wei Yi playing against Evgeny Tomashevsky

Hou Yifan, the world's number one on the women's ranking list, hold herself easily against World Cup winner Sergey Karjakin. In fact, after a quiet opening seized the initiative in the middlegame to get the better chances. However, with time-trouble looming she spoiled any hopes for a serious advantage but instead found herself in a dead-drawn double rook ending. After reaching the time-control on move 40 the players agreed to a draw.

Eyeing the opponent: Hou Yifan and Sergey Karjakin at the start of their game.

"Bend or break", that sometimes seems to be the the motto of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Against Loek van Wely he definitely went for broke by playing a double-edged pawn sacrifice in the opening. This could have led to a quick defeat had Loek van Wely seen a winning tactical shot in a complicated position. However, van Wely missed this opportunity but still had the better position. Eventually an endgame arose, in which Van Wely had a knight against two pawns but found no way to win and after 76 moves agreed to a draw.

Loek van Wely missed a good opportunity.

Challengers

Top seed Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu from Germany won
his first round game against Nino Batsiashvili from Georgia.

Nino Batsiashvili

Ju Wenjun played a wild tactical and messy game against Antipov

Maybe the stormy sea inspired the players - but maybe it's just
the general chess fever in Wijk aan Zee that inspires players to give their best.

The venue of the open tournament.

Previous winners in Wijk aan Zee

The secret of successful chess? For Magnus Carlsen
points obviously count more than beauty.

Pictures: Joachim Schulze

Playing schedule + Playchess commentary

The two main tournaments are round robins. Both groups start on the 16th of January 2016 in Wijk aan Zee. The Masters move to Amsterdam on January 21, and to Utrecht on January 27. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 1.30 p.m., except for the last round on 31 January 2016, which begins at 12.00 p.m. Round five will take place in the Science Center NEMO in Amsterdam, and round ten in the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht. Both these external rounds start at 2.00 p.m.

Schedule and results of Tata Steel Masters 2016

Schedule and results of Tata Steel Challengers 2016

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN: Masters – Challengers The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.