Back to Wijk: Tata Steel Starts Saturday

It’s back to Wijk.... err... work with the first big tournament of 2022. And — despite some COVID-enforced challenges — what a tournament it looks to be.

The Tata Steel Masters and Challengers kick off Saturday at 8am EST (2pm local time) Sporthal de Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Play continues daily through January 30, with rest days on January 19, 24, and 27.

Both events feature fields of 14 players competing in a single round-robin format. The Masters is a Category 20 event boasting an average rating of 2737, while the Challengers clocks in at Category 13 with a 2561 average rating.

Masters

GM Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2865
GM Fabiano Caruana	USA	2792
GM Anish Giri	NED	2772
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2767
GM Richard Rapport	HUN	2763
GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda	POL	2760
GM Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2743
GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit	IND	2727
GM Daniil Dubov	RUS	2720
GM Andrey Esipenko	RUS	2714
GM Sam Shankland	USA	2708
GM Jorden van Foreest	NED	2702
GM Nils Grandelius	SWE	2672
GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa	IND	2612

Challengers

GM Arjun Erigaisi	IND	2632
GM Rinat Jumabayev	KAZ	2631
GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly	IND	2627
GM Erwin l'Ami	NED	2622
GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen	CZE	2613
GM Max Warmerdam	NED	2607
GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre	DEN	2586
GM Lucas van Foreest	NED	2539
GM Daniel Dardha	BEL	2532
IM Volodar Murzin	RUS	2519
IM Polina Shuvalova	RUS	2516
GM Marc`Andria Maurizzi	FRA	2502
WGM Jiner Zhu	CHN	2478
IM Roven Vogel	GER	2452

Headlining the Masters event, and fresh off his successful world title defense, is Magnus Carlsen, while two Americans — Fabiano Caruana and Sam Shankland — will look to gain points on the scoreboard and the Elo rankings. Shankland appears to have arrived fairly early to blustery Wijk, as this Tweet shows:

Some plotlines to track as the event unfolds:

Can Magnus Carlsen take steps here to crack the 2900 rating barrier, a task that he has set himself after admitting some loss of motivation in post-World Championship interviews?
Will there be a handshake in the round two matchup between Sergey Karjakin and Daniil Dubov, after Karjakin’s intense criticism of Dubov for assisting Carlsen in his match against Ian Nepomniachtchi?
Can Jorden van Foreest duplicate his magic from last year’s Masters, where he was the surprising winner?
Youth is always well represented at Tata Steel. Can the Indian phenom Praggnanandhaa make a solid showing in one of his first elite classical events? Will Arjun Erigaisi follow his fantastic performance at the World Rapid and Blitz with more success here? What about Andrey Esipenko, who finished third in the Masters last year? And keep an eye on two of the young hopes of Russian chess — IM Volodar Murzin and IM Polina Shuvalova — in the Challengers.
New this year is a revamped tiebreak format designed to avoid any of the grumbing seen after the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. Will it be needed? Will grumbling occur anyway?

The rise of the Omicron variant has, of course, created intense difficulties for organizers, and the Tata Steel team is no exception. The traditional Amateur tournaments have been cancelled for the year due to the pandemic, and the playing hall is restricted to competitors in the two round-robins.

Fortunately, chess fans will have plenty of opportunity to keep up with all the games. Daily updates will be available on most of the major chess sites. Chess.com and Chess24 are offering live coverage on Twitch and YouTube: Robert Hess, Daniel Naroditsky, and Fiona Steil-Antoni lead the Chess.com coverage, while Peter Svidler and (in a return to English language commentary!) Jan Gustafsson helm the Chess24 programming.

US Chess will have an update in the middle of the event, and a full wrap-up after the tournament ends on January 30.