Giri-Carlsen In 1st Round Tata Steel

In the first round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen will play with the black pieces against GM Anish Giri.

The 77th edition of the annual super tournament in Wijk aan Zee was opened on Friday afternoon. In Tata Steel's Dudok Huis in Velzen-Noord, managing director Theo Henrar emphasized the tournament's long tradition:

“It started as a tournament for personnel, but over the years it has grown into a renowned tournament of world fame. We are proud that the world's best players come to Wijk aan Zee every year.”

After Anish Giri performed the prize giving of a scholastic event held earlier on Friday, the ceremony continued with a performance by 14 dancers of the Albeda Dance College from Rotterdam. Then, one by one the players had to pick one of the dancers, who revealed their lot number.

Magnus Carlsen wasn't too happy with his pairing.

He ended up with lot number nine: “When you pick number nine, you play Anish in the first round and you get a couple of Blacks almost at the very start, you're not going to be flying through the roof. But still it's a long tournament and it's not going to be decided early.”

The World Champion discussing how he should approach @anishgiri tomorrow in @tatasteelchess? #saychess #chess pic.twitter.com/efRYBoP0Tg

— Alina l'Ami (@alinalami) January 9, 2015

One player who is looking forward to playing Carlsen is Wesley So. “It's a big honor for me to be able to play him for the first time.” He got lot number seven, a lucky number as his mother recently told him.

Below is a video with some brief reactions from Carlsen and So and also GM Ivan Saric, who was promoted from the challengers group, and GM Sam Sevian, the youngest GM in the world who will be playing in the challengers.

The first round starts Saturday at 1:30pm local time, which is 4:30am Pacific, 7:30am New York and 11:30pm Sydney.

Below you'll find the full schedule and pairings for both groups.

2015 Tata Steel Masters | Pairings

2015 Tata Steel Challengers | Pairings