2017 Tata Steel Chess Tournament: Preview

The new year has just begun, and that means the first and most traditional super tournament is about to start. The 79th Tata Steel Chess Tournament will be held January 14-29 in Wijk aan Zee, Rotterdam and Haarlem.

As always, the tournament will be pairing the very best players in the world with (slightly) lesser-known stars as well as rising super-talents. This will be the case in both the Masters group and the Challengers.

Headlining the field is World Champion Magnus Carlsen, the winner in Wijk aan Zee in the last two years. He has won the tournament a record five times, a record shared with Viswanathan Anand.

After a disappointing event in Doha, Qatar, Carlsen went on a holiday before traveling to the Netherlands. (He still hasn't been back to Oslo since October.) This will be the 13th time for him in Wijk aan Zee. When he played for the first time, in 2004, he won the C-Group (which has ceased to exist) at age 13. Since then, he only skipped the 2014 edition.

One of Carlsen's main rivals will be Sergey Karjakin, his opponent in the 2016 world championship match and the 2016 World Blitz Champion. Karjakin won Wijk aan Zee in 2009. One thing is clear: This Russian grandmaster won't be afraid of the Dutch winter.

If in good shape, another player that should be considered a favorite is Levon Aronian. The Armenian number one will play for the tenth time; he has won four.

Perhaps the biggest rival for Carlsen will be Wesley So. The American grandmaster of Philippine origin has just won his first super tournament: the 2016 Sinquefield Cup. He also played an important role in the gold-winning Olympic team, U.S.A.

Wesley So is one of the two top favorites in Wijk aan Zee this year.

After a slight slump, local hero Anish Giri was back on track and played well at the Tal Memorial last month, during which he also became a father. He finished behind Ian Nepomniachtchi, who thus won his first super tournament as well.

Two Indian grandmasters will be playing, but five-time world champion Vishy Anand is not one of them. Instead, we'll see Pentala Harikrishna and Baskaran Adhiban. The latter edged out Eltaj Safarli and Alexei Dreev on tiebreak last year in the Challenger's group.

The other participants that have been announced are Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Richard Rapport, Wei Yi, and Loek van Wely.

2017 Tata Steel Masters | Participants

As always, the participants of the Challengers group will be fighting for a spot in the 2018 Masters. This year, there are ten players rated higher than 2600. Traditionally the group sees a mixture of experience, rising stars and female players.

2017 Tata Steel Challengers | Participants

The 79th Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place January 13-29 2017 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. As in previous years, two rounds will be played in external locations. On January 19, the fifth round will be held in Feyenoord's football stadium De Kuip in Rotterdam. On January 25, the 10th round will be held in theater De Philharmonie in Haarlem.

The opening ceremony will be held on Friday, January 13, and the first round for both sections will take place Saturday, January 14, starting at 1:30 p.m. local time which is 4:30 a.m. Pacific.

Note that Chess.com will be producing the live broadcast with GM Yasser Seirawan, which will be available on the tournament website and on Chess.com/TV. And look for daily reports here of each round, including photos, games, and quotes from the day's action.