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Carlsen Tops 'Strongest-Ever Field' At Tata Steel Chess 2023
The field for the 2023 Wijk aan Zee tournament has been announced. Photo courtesy Tata Steel Chess.

Carlsen Tops 'Strongest-Ever Field' At Tata Steel Chess 2023

PeterDoggers
| 91 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Magnus Carlsen once again tops the field for the upcoming 2023 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The 85th edition of the annual super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee will have five players from the world's top-10 and also five of the world's biggest talents.

Traditionally, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament announces the field for the Masters group about two months in advance. This time, it's exceptionally strong. 

The tournament will have the world number-one Carlsen (coming to Wijk aan Zee for the 19th time) as well as the world number-two GM Ding Liren, and three more top-10 players: GMs Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, and Wesley So. Furthermore, two other grandmasters from the world's top-20 will be present: GMs Richard Rapport and Levon Aronian. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. withdrew shortly before the tournament and has been replaced by GM Parham Maghsoodloo. Of course, 2021 winner GM Jorden van Foreest is also back.

Besides this group of already well-established grandmasters, we have five of the strongest newcomers, rising stars, prodigies, or however you want to call them, all born in the 21st century: GMs Gukesh D., Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer, and Praggnanandhaa R.

2023 Tata Steel Chess Masters Participants

# Fed Name Born Rating Rank
1 Magnus Carlsen 1990 2859 1
2 Ding Liren 1992 2811 2
3 Fabiano Caruana 1992 2766 6
4 Anish Giri 1994 2764 7
5 Wesley So 1993 2760 8
6 Richard Rapport 1996 2740 15
7 Levon Aronian 1982 2735 17
8 Gukesh D. 2006 2725 24
9 Arjun Erigaisi 2003 2722 26
10 Parham Maghsoodloo 2000 2719 29
11 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2004 2713 30
12 Vincent Keymer 2004 2696 43
13 Praggnanandhaa R. 2005 2684 52
14 Jorden van Foreest 1999 2681 59

No fewer than five of the 14 participants have won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament before: Carlsen (the record holder with eight victories in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022), Aronian (2007, 2008, 2012, and 2014), Caruana (2020), So (2017), and Van Foreest (2021).

"We'll be seeing great games," said tournament director Jeroen van den Berg. "And I’m not just talking about the matches between the world’s best players; I am really looking forward to how the young top talents, such as 16-year-old Gukesh or 18-year-old Abdusattorov, will compete with the seasoned players."

"This is the strongest field I have ever seen in Wijk aan Zee, an extremely impressive line-up," said Giri "I hear the same enthusiasm from other participants. It's great to compete together for the coveted title in January. Everyone wants to win this tournament at least once and I think that all participants will be able to do that in the upcoming edition."

Update: on December 5, 2022 the participants of the Challengers group were announced as well.

2023 Tata Steel Chess Challengers Participants

# Fed Name Rating Born
1 Amin Tabatabaei 2686 2001
2 Javokhir Sindarov 2654 2005
3 Alexander Donchenko 2627 1998
4 Jergus Pechac 2637 2001
5 Erwin l’Ami 2627 1985
6 Max Warmerdam 2616 2000
7 Mustafa Yilmaz 2609 1992
8 Luis Paulo Supi 2608 1996
9 Adhiban Baskaran 2610 1992
10 Velimir Ivic 2585 2002
11 Abhimanyu Mishra 2559 2009
12 Thomas Beerdsen 2515 1998
13 Rameshbabu Vaishali 2425 2001
14 Eline Roebers 2361 2006

After two years of absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the hundreds of amateurs are expected to play again, alongside the top GMs and spectators, during this 85th jubilee edition. The tournament will take place January 13-29, 2023 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.


This report was updated on January 7, and January 12, 2023 to reflect the replacement of Duda by Maghsoodloo in the Masters, the replacement of Salem by Ivic in the Challengers, and to update the ratings of the players to those of the January 2023 FIDE list.

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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