2011 Tata Steel Chess (Wijk ann Zee)
A very exciting tournament is shaping up in Wijk aan Zee. Sponsored by Tata Steel conglomerate has begun with a power-packed lineup including the top four players. Tata Steel is an Indian multinational conglomerate consisting of a number of industries. Those following the tournament from the early days will remember it as the Hoorgovens, a Dutch steel company that would later merge with British steel to form the Corus Group. When Tata steel purchased Corus in 2007, the tournament took on the name of Indian conglomerate.
This tournament will mark the first time in history that three 2800 players are competing with Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian heading the field. Vladimir Kramnik rounds out the top four in a field replete with young stars. Hikaru Nakamura will look to make an impression with his new #10 ranking and we can expect some fighting chess in Wijk aan Zee!! The other groups will have some interesting battles as well. The Chess Drum will provide limited coverage, but full coverage can be found at the official site and onsite coverage at ChessVibes.com.
January 14th-30th, 2011 (Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#
|
Name
|
Title
|
Federation
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | Norway |
 |
2814 |
| 2 | Anand, Viswanathan | GM | India |
 |
2810 |
| 3 | Aronian, Levon | GM | Armenia |
 |
2805 |
| 4 | Kramnik, Vladimir | GM | Russia |
 |
2791 |
| 5 | Grischuk, Alexander | GM | Russia |
|
2773 |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | GM | USA |
 |
2751 |
| 7 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | GM | Ukraine |
 |
2744 |
| 8 | Nepomniachtichi, Ian | GM | Russia |
|
2733 |
| 9 | Wang Hao | GM | China |
 |
2731 |
| 10 | Shirov, Alexei | GM | Spain |
 |
2722 |
| 11 | Vachier-Lagrave, M | GM | France |
 |
2715 |
| 12 | Giri, Anish | GM | Netherlands |
 |
2686 |
| 13 | Smeets, Jan | GM | Netherlands |
|
2662 | 14 | L’Ami, Erwin | GM | Netherlands |
|
2628 |
|
#
|
Name
|
Title
|
Federation
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
| 1 | Wojtasek, Radek | GM | Poland |
 |
2726 |
| 2 | Navara, David | GM | Czech Republic |
 |
2708 |
| 3 | Fressinet, Laurent | GM | France |
|
2707 |
| 4 | Efimenko, Zahar | GM | Ukraine |
|
2701 |
| 5 | So, Wesley | GM | Philippines |
 |
2673 |
| 6 | Sargissian, Gabriel | GM | Armenia |
|
2667 |
| 7 | Liem, Le Quang | GM | Vietnam |
 |
2664 |
| 8 | McShane, Luke | GM | England |
 |
2664 |
| 9 | Ganguly, Surya | GM | India |
|
2651 |
| 10 | Li Chao | GM | China |
|
2649 |
| 11 | Hammar, Jon Ludvig | GM | Norway |
|
2647 |
| 12 | Tkachiev, Vladislav | GM | France |
|
2636 |
| 13 | Nijboer, Friso | GM | Netherlands |
|
2584 | 14 | Spoelman, Wouter | GM | Netherlands |
|
2547 |
|
#
|
Name
|
Title
|
Federation
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
| 1 | Kazhgaleyev, Murtas | GM | Kazakhstan |
 |
2637 |
| 2 | Ivanisevic, Ivan | GM | Serbia |
 |
2630 |
| 3 | Bluvshtein, Mark | GM | Canada |
 |
2590 |
| 4 | Vocaturo, Daniele | GM | Italy |
 |
2570 |
| 5 | Swiercz, Dariusz | GM | Poland |
|
2540 |
| 6 | Nzyhnyk, Ilya | IM | Ukraine |
|
2530 |
| 7 | Lahno, Katherina | GM | Ukraine |
|
2518 |
| 8 | Pruijssers, Roeland | IM | Netherlands |
|
2484 |
| 9 | Bok, Benjamin | IM | Netherlands |
|
2453 |
| 10 | van Kampen, Robin | IM | Netherlands |
|
2443 |
| 11 | Siebrecht, Sebastian | GM | Germany |
 |
2439 |
| 12 | van der Werf, Mark | GM | Netherlands |
|
2439 |
| 13 | de Jong, Jan Williem | IM | Netherlands |
|
2437 | 14 | Sachdev, Tania | IM | India |
|
2391 |
Nakamura is worthy of the same level of consideration as any of the other top 10 chess players in the world. He has demonstrated that he can do battle with the best of them. He seems to have had no problem shaking off his ill-fated loss to Carlsen as he continued to play first-rate chess from that point on. That says a lot, Go Naka!
Daaim,
If Naka plays more solid openings as he has tried to do in the recent past his place in the “elite” will be cemented for some time due to his natural ability and fighting personality. If he has not really done so as yet (I’d really be surprised if he hasn’t but you never know with the players of the “computer” generation!) one course of action open to him is to study the games of Petrosian very, very deeply.
This will give him a different appreciation of chess and make him very hard to defeat while his aggressive nature will give him chances to play for wins.
Due, inter alia, to Naka’s style, youth, the intense competition among the “youngsters” (Carlsen, Nepom et al) and the battle between them and the “oldsters” (eg Anand, Topa and Kramnik) I don’t believe that his fans will have to worry that if he consumes and digests the games of the 9th world champion his play will become “boring”. Indeed, although “Iron” Tigran had the propensity to draw a lot of games, many of his encounters have been exciting stuff when he was drawn into battle. The same observation can be made about Kramnik (see eg his WC match vs Topa and his recent demolition jobs on people like Shirov).
All in all, although we are in the computer age, the future of the chess battle remains very exciting as can be seen from the numerous decisive games in the various sections in Wijk.
Such an exciting tournament ! Hoping Nakamura wins this.
@Ian Wilkinson- I never really thought about studying Petrosian due to the large amount of draws he had and most players talk about the attacking players like Tal or Alekhine, but the advice you gave sure makes a lot of sense. I’ll have to go over a few of his games.
Shirov is another player known for attacking play, but it looks like he has had fire thrown on HIS board in the event so far.
Thanks for the tip………….