Star Players Kick Off Tata Steel Chess India

The Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz Women's tournament was inaugurated at Kolkata, India, on Wednesday, August 30, 2023, with a short ceremony and drawing of lots. The event pits five of the best Indian women players against five invited global stars, including the reigning Women's World Champion, Ju Wenjun. The women's event will run from August 31 until September 4, 2023, to be followed by the open event for the next five days, both with a single round-robin of rapid games. The women's tournament carries a prize fund of $41,500, identical to the open tournament, an admirable gesture by Tata Steel to bring parity to the competitions.

Ju starts as the firm favorite on paper in what will be her tournament debut on Indian soil. Her rapid rating of 2592 and blitz rating of 2536 are way ahead of her nearest rivals, the Indian duo of GMs Humpy Koneru (2473 and 2448) and Harika Dronavalli (2459 and 2417). However, quick time controls and the resulting unique challenges promise an absorbing contest.

The Women's Rapid begins on August 31 at 5:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 CEST / 15:00 IST.

A hectic schedule of global events has made it quite difficult for the organizers to assemble an interesting field this year in both the women's and open sections. Many players were at the World Cup 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan (July 30-August 24), and/or at the World Rapid Team Championship in Dusseldorf, Germany (August 26-28), before this event, and are proceeding to the World Women's Team Championship in Warsaw, Poland, and/or to the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China (September 23-October 8).

The schedule has been most grueling for Harika, who had to find time to celebrate her daughter's first birthday in between all her tournament appearances, and hence preferred to rest after landing in Kolkata, instead of attending the inauguration ceremony.

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Jeroen van den Berg, the organizer of the current tournament and also the iconic tournaments of Wijk aan Zee, shared his insight on the difficulty of getting a strong field of players in the open and women's sections this year: "Normally, we (hold these tournaments) in November, but the Sinquefield Cup is being (held at that time this year). Some of the ladies, immediately after this event, (are going) to Poland, to play the (Women) World Team Championship. So, it was quite a puzzle to make it happen... But, we have the (Women's) World Champion here—we are quite happy with that".

The hectic schedule also meant that the All India Chess Federation decided to conducts its practice camp for the Indian team for the Asian Games with GM Boris Gelfand at the players' hotel, thus making it convenient for the teams to attend the camp as well as participate in the event. Unfortunately, this means that the players' list in the open section will miss speed chess expert GM Nihal Sarin, who was not selected to represent India for the Asian Games due to his standing in the national rankings.

In spite of all the scheduling conflicts, Tata Steel and event organizer Gameplan are happy with the pool of players gathered. "Among the international players, we always tried to get a mix of young and talented players and as many top players as we could get. So, we were happy to get the (Women's) World Champion. In fact, we had the runner-up (GM Lei Tingjie), who had agreed. But due to visa delays, she had to withdraw," said Jeet Banerjee, Director of Gameplan. Hence, the organization secured the participation of GM Polina Shuvalova as a replacement, while WGM Divya Deshmukh was another last-minute replacement for defending blitz champion IM R Vaishali, who had to withdraw due to ill health.

Another new face in this edition is GM Nino Batsiashvili, who returns to India with pleasant memories of the gold medal for her performance on the second board in the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022. "I like to be in India because I play very well here always!"

Returning to defend her rapid title is GM Anna Ushenina, who also celebrated her 37th birthday on the inauguration day. "Defending my title will be tough, but I will try my best," Ushenina declared.

What does it take to do well in such an unusual and grueling format compared to a classical tournament? To their credit, youngsters Divya and WGM Vantika Agrawal came up with smart insights: "The most important thing to play well in such a tournament is to keep your composure, as it is not a tournament where you have time to recover from your losses. So, I think the most important thing would be just to make peace with whatever result comes and try to do your best in the next games," explained Divya, while Vantika opined, "You need to be physically (very) fit to play rapid and blitz—so many games, so many rounds in a day."

First-round pairings: Women's Rapid

The 2023 Tata Steel Chess India Men's and Women's Rapid and Blitz are two of India's most prestigious rapid chess events. The Women's event takes place before the Men's. Players compete in a 10-player round-robin in three days of rapid games with a 25+10 time control, followed by two days of blitz games played at a 3+2 time control. 

Previous Coverage

• 2023 Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: All The Information