Tata Steel Chess 2022 gets underway in Wijk aan Zee
The Tata Steel Chess festival in Wijk aan Zee traditionally opens the season for elite players, and the 84th edition is no different. As usual, the 14-player round-robin Masters tournament running from January 14-30 (with three rest days on January 19, 24 and 27), is a nearly perfect mix of top GMs and talented and aspiring youngsters: # Name Rating Fed World rank 1 Magnus Carlsen 2865 NOR 1 2 Fabiano Caruana 2792 USA 4 3 Anish Giri 2772 NED 7 5 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2767 AZE 9 4 Richard Rapport 2763 HUN 11 6 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 2760 POL 13 7 Sergey Karjakin 2743 RUS 18 8 Vidit Gujrathi 2720 IND 24 9 Daniil Dubov 2714 RUS 27 10 Andrey Esipenko 2714 RUS 26 11 Sam Shankland 2708 USA 29 12 Jorden van Foreest 2702 NED 35 13 Nils Grandelius 2672 SWE 67 14 Praggnanandhaa R. 2612 IND 195 The action starts on January 15, after the opening ceremony and drawing of lots taking place the day before. All eyes are on Magnus Carlsen, who will embark on the quest for his 8th title in Wijk aan Zee. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament The World Champion is facing a challenging task: 2020 winner Fabiano Caruana, the local heroes Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest (who tied for first place last year), seasoned and always dangerous grandmasters Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin, ambitious GMs on an ascending trajectory such as Richard Rapport, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Daniil Dubov and Andrey Esipenko are eager to put up some serious fight. 16-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who is making his debut in Tata Steel, also can throw a curveball. Photo: Niki Riga The Tata Steel Tournament organizers introduced a new tiebreak format this year. If the top two or more players score the same number of points, a tiebreak to determine the tournament winner will be played. All players with this highest score will participate in the tiebreak blitz games. Irrespective of the outcome, the prize money will be divided equally among all the players in the tiebreak. The organizers provided for every possible playoff scenario (i.e. for two, three, four and 5+ players). Check out complete tiebreak regulations for Tata Steel 2022 here. After a one-year hiatus, the Challengers tournament returns to Tata Steel Chess. The event will take place concurrently with the Masters and also bring together rising stars and established grandmasters: # Name Fed Rating 1 Rinat Jumabayev KAZ 2631 2 Arjun Erigaisi IND 2629 3 Surya Ganguly IND 2627 5 Erwin l’Ami NED 2622 4 Thai Dai Van Nguyen CZE 2609 6 Max Warmerdam NED 2599 7 Jonas Buhl Bjerre DEN 2586 8 Daniel Dardha BEL 2533 9 Lucas van Foreest NED 2530 10 Volodar Murzin RUS 2519 11 Polina Schuvalova RUS 2516 12 Marc Andria Maurizzi FRA 2496 13 Zhu Jiner CHN 2478 14 Roven Vogel GER 2452 The main question is who will qualify for the next-year Tata Steel Masters. It looks like at least 4-5 players have a fair chance to accomplish this task. It will also be very interesting to see two female players, Polina Shuvalova and Zhu Jiner, perform in such a strong tournament. Official website: tatasteelchess.com/