2013 Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee)

In a week’s time, Wijk aan Zee will host the its silver 75th edition of the Tatat Chess Chess Tournament. The average rating is 2732 is not quite as strong as last year’s 2754, but nevertheless a strong one indeed. The highest-rated player ever in Magnus Carlsen and world number three Levon Aronian will be on hand as well as a much-improved Fabiano Caruana (seeded tenth last year). Sergey Karjakin is again the only Russian national competing. Certainly the balance of chess power has been shifting away from Moscow.

A much-improved Fabiano Caruana hopes to make an impact. Here he faced GM Levon Aronian in the 2012 Sao Paulo/Bilbao Tournament where he placed 1st, but lost on tiebreaks to Magnus Carlsen. Photo by Albert Silver.

Viswanathan Anand will be playing this year and will try to make good on his resolution to play stronger this year. His compatriot Pentala Harikrishna will be playing by virtue of winning Group “B” last year. Hikaru Nakamura will make for excitement as Chinese duo Wang Hao and Hou Yifan will make for intrigue. Hou recently lost her world crown in the questionable knockout format, but a strong showing could provide her with a boost in confidence. Four Dutchman will defend home court led by star Anish Giri.

Tata Steel is an Indian multinational conglomerate consisting of a number of industries. Those following the tournament from the early days will remember it as the Hoorgovens, a Dutch steel company that would later merge with British steel to form the Corus Group. When Tata steel purchased Corus in 2007, the tournament took on the name of Indian conglomerate.

Official Site: https://www.tatasteelchess.com/
Chessvibes (recommended for on site coverage): https://www.chessvibes.com/
Tata Steel (YouTube Channel): https://www.youtube.com/user/freshmenmedia/

2013 Tata Steel Tournament January 12th-27th, 2013 (Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands)
Group A
#	Name	Title	Federation	Flag	Rating
1	Carlsen, Magnus	GM	Norway		2861
2	Aronian, Levon	GM	Armenia		2802
3	Caruana, Fabiano	GM	Italy		2781
4	Karjakin, Sergey	GM	Russia		2780
5	Anand, Viswanathan	GM	India		2772
6	Nakamura, Hikaru	GM	USA		2769
7	Wang, Hao	GM	China		2752
8	Leko, Peter	GM	Hungary		2735
9	Giri, Anish	GM	Netherlands		2720
10	Harikrishna, Pentala	GM	India		2698
11	Van Wely, Loek	GM	Netherlands		2679
12	Sokolov, Ivan	GM	Netherlands		2663
13	L’Ami, Erwin	GM	Netherlands		2627
14	Hou, Yifan	GM	China		2603
Group B
#	Name	Title	Federation	Flag	Rating
1	Naiditsch, Arkadij	GM	Germany		2708
2	Movsesian, Sergei	GM	Armenia		2688
3	Edouard, Romain	GM	France		2686
4	Tiviakov, Sergei	GM	Netherlands		2655
5	Turov, Maxim	GM	Russia		2630
6	Rapport, Richard	GM	Hungary		2621
7	Nikolic, Predrag	GM	Bosnia and Herzegovina		2619
8	Smeets, Jan	GM	Netherlands		2615
9	Dubov, Daniil	GM	Russia		2600
10	Ipatov, Alexander	GM	Turkey		2587
11	van Kampen, Robin	GM	Netherlands		2581
12	Grandelius, Nils	GM	Sweden		2572
13	Timman, Jan	GM	Netherlands		2566
14	Ernst, Sipke	GM	Netherlands		2556
Group C
#	Name	Title	Federation	Flag	Rating
1	Peralta, Fernando	GM	Argentina		2617
2	Kovchan, Alexander	GM	Ukraine		2579
3	Brunello, Sabino	GM	Italy		2572
4	Mekhitarian, Krikor	GM	Brazil		2543
5	Romanishin, Oleg	GM	Ukraine		2521
6	Gretarsson, Hjörvar Steinn	IM	Iceland		2516
7	Swinkels, Robin	GM	Netherlands		2508
8	Burg, Twan	IM	Netherlands		2492
9	van der Werf, Mark	IM	Netherlands		2450
10	Klein, David	IM	Netherlands		2445
11	Goryachkina, Alexandra	WGM	Russia		2402
12	Bitensky, Igor	IM	Israel		2400
13	Admiraal, Miguoël	FM	Netherlands		2321
14	Schut, Lisa	WIM	Netherlands		2295
Official Site