Tata Steel Rd2: all games drawn

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

Photos by official Facebook page

Round two results for Masters and Challengers

Sunrise in Wijk an Zee (photo by Alina L'Ami)

The second round of Tata Steel was somewhat of a letdown for those hoping following only the Master tournament. It wasn’t merely the lack of decisive results, but the somewhat lackadaisical games as well. However the chess fans who had no qualms of checking in on the Challenger event had no shortage of entertaining battles on the board to enjoy.

Fabiano Caruana and his second Rustam Kasimdzhanov arriving at the venue (photo by Alina L'Ami)

If the Master group was defined by the many draws, not all draws are equal. Magnus Carlsen’s game against Fabiano Caruana was certainly the most interesting, in spite of the short number of moves. For one, the players were playing a highly unorthodox opening, which clearly meant both were ready to fight from the very beginning. This is the sort of situation that Carlsen excels in, readily giving up his potential opening advantage in order to remove the computer preparation factor from the equation. Things threatened to get out of hand for the young American, but a missed chance by Magnus let Fabiano off the hook and the game was drawn

Magnus Carlsen - Fabiano Caruana

A quick interview with Fabiano Caruana after his game

Fans hoping Ding Liren would unleash his King's Indian a second straight year were disappointed

Even Mamedyarov (right) was unable to impose his character on the game

The Challenger event was quite the opposite with an astonishing 7/7 decisive games in round one, and round two was not far off with only two draws. Still, what stood out was how many players from the previous day found themselves switching chairs in the second round.

Jorden Van Foreest who had won in round one, lost in round two, as did Erwin L’Ami, and Ju Wenjun. On the other hand, Nino Batsiashvili, Mikhail Antipov, and Benjamin Bok, all of whom had come up with the short end of the stick in round one, bounced back with important wins in round two.

Nino Batsiashvili showed grit as she bounced back from her loss with a win over Dutch talent van Foreest

The only two players to succeed in securing two straight wins out of two are the Indian grandmaster Baskaran Adhiban and the Russian Veteran Alexei Dreev.

 Adhiban (left) along with Dreev are the only players in either the Masters or Challenger to have 2.0/2

Replay all games from round two: Masters and Challengers

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Watch it live on Playchess!

When the games are running, clicking on the above link will take you to our live broadcast. It is free and open to all – as a Premium Account member you have access to the Live Book, Chat, chess engine analysis – all in your browser, on a notebook, tablet or even your smartphone. And the Let's Check function will show you what the most powerful computers in the world think of the current position, as each move is being played.

In the broadcast below, on the side of each board is an evaluation meter, showing you which side is better. The small "x" button on the top right of each board will remove it from the broadcast. If you remove two games you will have four larger boards. Removing four will give you two even larger boards, and removing five will give you just one very large board. Refresh the page (Ctrl-R) to return to the six most popular boards.

You can also click the "+" and "–" icons at the bottom right of the broadcast window to increase and decrease the number of boards. There are other functions there: you can download PGNs of the running games and even start an engine by clicking the robot button. Note that you can view moves and statistics in the opening (with the Live Book switched on) and even analyse on the boards while the games are being broadcast, by moving pieces and using the engine – best in multiple line mode. Is there a better way to follow the games?

It may interest you to know that you can use the same broadcast service above on your blog or web site.
It is simply a matter of copying and pasting a line or two of code. Try it out: instructions are here.

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.