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The Tata Steel Chess tournament is the first chess highlight in the New Year. The venue Wijk aan Zee is located 20 km from Amsterdam on the Dutch North Sea coast. Chess tournaments have been held there since 1938; After World War II, they were sponsored by a steel company (Hoogovens). Later, the tournaments got the name Corus after a merger with British Steel in 1999, and it changed once again as "Corus" became "Tata Steel Europe" in 2010 after a merger with the Indian conglomerate's steel arm.
Meanwhile, a stable format has pit 14 players from the world elite in a single round-robin tournament ("Masters"). In a second tournament ("Challengers"), has evolved into a proving ground for young talents and experienced veterans and offers a chance to fight for a place in Masters of the following year. Wijk aan Zee hosts a slew of amateur tournaments which is key to its traditional festival atmosphere.
Magnus Carlsen won his sixth tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 2018 — a record
World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the headliner, as he tries to extend his record of six first-place finishes. He surpassed Viswanathan Anand last year, but the Indian ace is back to try once more himself.
As an appetiser, the organisers have produced this short video:
We introduced the fields in our December preview: Strong fields set for Tata Steel 2019.
| Title | Name | FED | Elo | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2835 | 1 |
| GM | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2817 | 3 |
| GM | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2813 | 4 |
| GM | Giri, Anish | NED | 2783 | 5 |
| GM | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2777 | 7 |
| GM | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2773 | 8 |
| GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | RUS | 2763 | 13 |
| GM | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2757 | 14 |
| GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | POL | 2738 | 19 |
| GM | Rapport, Richard | HUN | 2731 | 23 |
| GM | Shankland, Samuel | USA | 2725 | 27 |
| GM | Fedoseev, Vladimir | RUS | 2724 | 28 |
| GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2695 | 45 |
| GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | NED | 2612 | 192 |
Average rating: 2753 (FIDE rankings and Elo as of January 1, 2019)
| Title | Name | FED | Born | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | Anton Korobov | UKR | 1985 | 2699 |
| GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | IRI | 2000 | 2679 |
| GM | Vladislav Kovalev | BLR | 1994 | 2687 |
| GM | Evgeny Bareev | CAN | 1966 | 2650 |
| GM | Erwin l'Ami | NED | 1985 | 2643 |
| GM | Benjamin Gledura | HUN | 1999 | 2615 |
| GM | Maksim Chigaev | RUS | 1996 | 2604 |
| GM | Andrei Esipenko | RUS | 2002 | 2584 |
| GM | R Praggnananndhaa | IND | 2005 | 2539 |
| MI | Vincent Keymer | GER | 2004 | 2500 |
| GM | Lucas van Foreest | NED | 2001 | 2502 |
| MI/WGM | Elisabeth Pähtz | GER | 1985 | 2477 |
| MI/WGM | Dinara Saduakassova | KAZ | 1996 | 2472 |
| MI | Stefan Kuipers | NED | 1990 | 2470 |
Average rating: 2582 (as of January 1, 2019)
A live broadcast is available courtesy TataSteelMasters.com via live.chessbase.com or on the Playchess server. Anna Rudolf and Lawrence Trent will be the commentary duo from January 12th to 18th. Sopiko Guramishvilli and Robert Hess will take over from January 20th to 27th. And a surprise team is set to handle the January 19th show, to be announced.
ChessBase will provide daily video round-up shows by a variety of commentators (see Schedule below).
A 14-player single round-robin means each player plays every other once for 13 rounds in all. The drawing of lots determines the colours for each game.
The drawing of lots for the Masters took place today.
Up first, drawing number 14... @MagnusCarlsen #tatasteelchess pic.twitter.com/pduWGdEMzV
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 11, 2019
The pairings for the #tatasteelchess Masters! pic.twitter.com/L1M6f4cOUU
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 11, 2019
The Challengers draw was held yesterday and produced the following draw:
Therefore, the Round 1 pairings are as follows:The drawing for the #tatasteelchess Challengers pic.twitter.com/t9nn9uvL8y
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 10, 2019
| Round 1 - Saturday the 12th | |
| Maghsoodloo, Parham - Korobov, Anton | |
| Paehtz, Elisabeth - Keymer, Vincent | |
| Kuipers, Stefan - L'Ami, Erwin | |
| Esipenko, Andrey - Kovalev, Vladislav | |
| Praggnanandhaa R - Bareev, Evgeny | |
| Chigaev, Maksim - Saduakassova, Dinara | |
| Van Foreest, Lucas - Gledura, Benjamin | |
Players receive 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds bonus per move starting from move one.
As has become traditional, there will be two 'Chess on Tour' days, this year in Alkmaar (Round 5) and Leiden (Round 10).
| Day | Date | Round | Round-up show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | January 12 | 1 | IM Merijn van Delft |
| Sunday | January 13 | 2 | GM Daniel King |
| Monday | January 14 | 3 | GM Daniel King |
| Tuesday | January 15 | 4 | GM Daniel King |
| Wednesday | January 16 | 5 | GM Daniel King |
| Friday | January 18 | 6 | IM Merijn van Delft |
| Saturday | January 19 | 7 | GM Daniel King |
| Sunday | January 20 | 8 | GM Yannick Pelletier |
| Tuesday | January 22 | 9 | GM Daniel King |
| Wednesday | January 23 | 10 | IM Lawrence Trent |
| Friday | January 25 | 11 | GM Yannick Pelletier |
| Saturday | January 26 | 12 | IM Lawrence Trent |
| Sunday | January 27 | 13 | GM Yannick Pelletier |
All rounds in Wijk aan Zee start at 13:30 CET (12:30 UTC, 7:30 EST), except the last round, which starts at 12.00. The Chess-on-Tour rounds (5 and 10) start at 14:00 CET.
