1/21/2012 – That's right, not the Mediterranean, where the luxury liner Costa Concordia hit rocks last Friday, causing many fatalities and the potential pollution of a beautiful sea coast. No, this was a Philippine cargo ship, and it ran aground a stone's throw from the chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Our colleagues Axel Eger and Joachim Schulze sent us pictures of the incident and Wijk in general.
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From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
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The 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place from January 13 to 29,
2012 in the sports hall Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee. There are three grandmaster
tournaments with fourteen players each playing thirteen rounds at 100 minutes
for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes for the rest
of the game, with a 30 seconds/move increment starting with the first move of
the game. Rest days are on January 18, 23, and 26.
Philippine cargo ship stranded off Wijk aan Zee coast
It was the most exciting thing since Carlsen vs Giri: a 155 metre long Philippine
ship, the Aztec Maiden, carrying 21 crew and no cargo, was stranded off the
beach of Wijk aan Zee. Hundreds of local people gathered to watch the stranded
vessel. There were no reports of injuries after the ship broke free and drifted,
coming to rest on sand about 200 metres offshore. A local salvage firm will
try to refloat the ship at high tide, the coastguard said.
The ship and a lone spectator on the beach
From the player's hotel the ship looks alarmingly close
The North Sea lashes at the stranded ship
Amateur video footage of the stranded ship – the noise is the famous
Wijk wind
The games are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get
immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz
13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
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In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
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