2017 Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee)

The first major tournament has begun and marks the first classical tournament for Magnus Carlsen since he defended his title. He will be one of the 14 competitors in the 79th edition of the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands). Pea soup will not be the only thing served up as the stage is set for some sizzling play in one of the longest running tournaments.

Carlsen hoists champion’s trophy.
Photo by chess24

Carlsen is joined by the newly-emergent Wesley So and his nemesis Sergey Karjakin. There are several new faces in the “Masters” group including the winner of last year’s “Challengers” group Baskaran Adihiban and Wei Yi, who won the group in 2015.

GM Jeffery Xiong
Photo by Daaim Shabazz. The Challengers tournament will be led by Mark Ragger of the Austria, but will have some interesting faces including World Junior Champion Jeffery Xiong. This field has a number of young talent including Norway’s hopeful new GM in Aryan Tari. China’s Lu Shanglei was known most for his performance in last year’s World Cup, but will be trying to make a presence here and well as his compatriot Lei Tingjie, the world’s highest-rated girl.

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.

Official Site: https://www.tatasteelchess.com/
Videos: (YouTube, Chess24)

2017 Tata Steel Tournament January 13th-29th, 2017 (Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands)
Masters
#	Name	Title	Federation	Flag	Rating
1	Carlsen, Magnus	GM	Norway		2840
2	So, Wesley	GM	USA		2808
3	Karjakin, Sergey	GM	Russia		2785
4	Aronian, Levon	GM	Armenia		2780
5	Giri, Anish	GM	Netherlands		2773
6	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	GM	Russia		2767
7	Harikrishna, Pentala	GM	India		2766
8	Eljanov, Pavel	GM	Ukraine		2755
9	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	GM	Poland		2750
10	Andreikin, Dmitri	GM	Russia		2736
11	Wei, Yi	GM	China		2675
12	Rapport, Richard	GM	Hungary		2702
13	Van Wely, Loek	GM	Netherlands		2695
14	Adhiban, Baskaran	GM	India		2653
Challengers
#	Name	Title	Federation	Flag	Rating
1	Ragger, Markus	GM	Austria		2697
2	Smirin, Ilya	GM	Israel		2667
3	Xiong, Jeffery	GM	USA		2667
4	Jones, Gwain	GM	England		2665
5	Grandelius, Nils	GM	Sweden		2642
6	Lu, Shanglei	GM	China		2612
7	van Foreest, Jorden	GM	Netherlands		2612
8	Bok, Benjamin	GM	Netherlands		2608
9	L’Ami, Erwin	GM	Netherlands		2605
10	Hansen, Eric	GM	Canada		2603
11	Tari, Aryan	GM	Norway		2584
12	Dobrov, Vladimir	GM	Russia		2499
13	Tingjie, Lei	WGM	Netherlands		2467
14	Guramishvili, Sopiko	IM	Georgia		2370
Official Site