The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel to form the Corus Group in 1999, after which the tournament was called the Corus Chess Tournament. Corus Group became Tata Steel Europe in 2007. Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings; for example, the 2011 event was referred to as the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament.[1][2]
Top grandmasters compete in the tournament, but regular club players are welcome to play as well. The Masters group pits fourteen of the world's best against each other in a round-robin tournament, and has sometimes been described as the "Wimbledon of Chess".[3][4] Since 1938, there has been a long list of famous winners, including Max Euwe, Bent Larsen, Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, Lajos Portisch, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Anatoly Karpov, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik, Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, and Magnus Carlsen. Of the ten World Chess Champions since the first tournament in 1938, only four – Alexander Alekhine, Vasily Smyslov, Bobby Fischer, and Ding Liren – have not won it. In 2001, nine of the top ten players in the world participated.
Magnus Carlsen holds the record for most wins at the tournament, with eight titles to his name. Anand is the only other player to have won the event five or more times. Anand also holds the record of most consecutive games played at the tournament without a loss (70 – from 1998 to 2004).
Tournament history
editHoogovens Beverwijk
editThe early tournaments were very small, starting with groups of four in 1938, and entry restricted to Dutch players. The first five tournaments continued this way, with the contest held annually early in January. In 1943 and 1944 the tournament field was doubled in size to eight players. No tournament was held in 1945 due to World War II. The first international tournament was held in 1946. The main tournament field was expanded to ten, with invitations to Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium) and Gösta Stoltz (Sweden) along with a Dutch contingent of eight.
The tournament field remained at ten until 1953 when it was increased to twelve, and an international women's tournament was also held. In 1954 the tournament field was returned to ten players, but the strength of the competitions increased. The field was greatly enlarged to 18 in 1963, and although it reduced to 16 in 1964, the event had become the strongest international chess tournament in the world (Golombek 1977, p. 143).
As the tournament grew in stature, the ancillary women's tournament became a regular feature, as did a 'Masters' event and 'Masters Reserves' events. There also began a tradition to operate a year on year invitation policy that resembled the system used in football 'league tables'; the winner of a lesser category event would receive an invitation to the next higher event the following year.
The 1946 tournament was one of the first European international chess tournaments after World War II. Food shortages were still a problem in Europe, so the post-tournament banquet featured pea soup, inexpensive fare of the common people. In subsequent years pea soup has been served as the first course of the concluding banquet, a tradition continued when the tournament was moved from Beverwijk to Wijk aan Zee (Damsky & Sugden 2005, p. 164).
Winners of the top group:[5]
# Year Winner(s) 1 1938 Jilling Van Dijk (Netherlands)
2 1939 3 1940 4 1941 5 1942 6 1943 7 1944 – 1945 No competition (due to World War II) 8 1946 Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium)
9 1947 10 1948 11 1949 Savielly Tartakower (France)
12 1950 13 1951 Hermann Pilnik (Argentina)
14 1952 15 1953 16 1954 Vasja Pirc (Yugoslavia)
17 1955 18 1956 Gideon Ståhlberg (Sweden)
19 1957 20 1958 21 1959 Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland)
22 1960 Bent Larsen (Denmark)
Tigran Petrosian (Soviet Union)
23 1961 24 1962 25 1963 26 1964 27 1965 Lajos Portisch (Hungary)
28 1966 29 1967
Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee
editThe tournament was moved to the Dutch seaside town Wijk aan Zee in 1968. In this period, the tournament was popularly called both "Hoogovens" and "Wijk aan Zee". Winners of the Grandmaster A group since 1968 have been:
# Year Winner(s) 30 1968 31 1969 32 1970 33 1971 34 1972 35 1973 36 1974 Walter Browne (United States)
37 1975 38 1976 39 1977 40 1978 41 1979 42 1980 43 1981 44 1982 John Nunn (United Kingdom)
45 1983 46 1984 Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland)
47 1985 48 1986 49 1987 50 1988 51 1989 Viswanathan Anand (India)
52 1990 53 1991 54 1992 Valery Salov (Russia)
Boris Gelfand (Belarus)
55 1993 56 1994 Predrag Nikolić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
57 1995 Alexey Dreev (Russia)
58 1996 Vasyl Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
59 1997 60 1998 61 1999
Corus tournament
editFrom 2000, the popular name for the tournament was more or less equally shared between "Wijk aan Zee" and "Corus".
# Year Winner(s) 62 2000 63 2001 64 2002 65 2003 66 2004 67 2005 68 2006 Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)
69 2007 Levon Aronian (Armenia)
Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
70 2008 Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
71 2009 72 2010
Tata Steel tournament
editFrom 2011, the popular name for the tournament was changed from 'Corus' to 'Tata Steel'.
# Year Winner(s) 73 2011 74 2012 75 2013 76 2014 77 2015 78 2016 79 2017 80 2018 81 2019 82 2020 83 2021 84 2022 85 2023 86 2024 Wei Yi (China)
Multiple winners
editUntil recently, players ending on the same score shared the title.
The first tie-break was held in 2018, with Magnus Carlsen defeating Anish Giri 1½–½. The two players sharing first place after the regular games play two Blitz games and then possibly also an Armageddon game to decide a sole winner.[6]
| Player | Wins | Tournaments Won |
|---|---|---|
| 8 (1 shared) | 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022 | |
| 5 (3 shared) | 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006 | |
| 4 (1 shared) | 1940, 1942, 1952, 1958 | |
| 4 (2 shared) | 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014 | |
| 4 (2 shared) | 1968, 1971, 1984, 1987 | |
| 4 (1 shared) | 1965, 1972, 1975, 1978 | |
| 3 (1 shared) | 1950, 1958, 1963 | |
| 3 (3 shared) | 1965, 1969, 1977 | |
| 3 | 1999, 2000, 2001 | |
| 3 (1 shared) | 1982, 1990, 1991 | |
| 2 (1 shared) | 1974, 1980 | |
| 2 | 1988, 1993 | |
| 2 (2 shared) | 1960, 1961 | |
| 2 (1 shared) | 1989, 1994 | |
| 2 (1 shared) | 1959, 1976 | |
| 2 | 1966, 1979 | |
| 2 (1 shared) | 1992, 1997 | |
| 2 (2 shared) | 1977, 1981 | |
| 2 (1 shared) | 1986, 1987 | |
| 2 (1 shared) | 1981, 1985 | |
| 2 (2 shared) | 2006, 2007 | |
| 2 | 1944, 1947 |
Summary by year
edit2010s
edit2010
editMagnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 8½/13, winning his second title.
2011
editHikaru Nakamura finished first with a score of 9/13, winning his first title and his first super-tournament.
2012
editLevon Aronian finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a third time.
2013
editMagnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 10/13, winning the title for a third time and matching Garry Kasparov's record score for the event, set in 1999.
2014
editLevon Aronian finished first with a score of 8/13, winning the title for a fourth time.
2015
editMagnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a fourth time.
2016
editMagnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a record-equalling fifth time.
2017
editWesley So defeated defending champion Magnus Carlsen by one point, with a score of 9/13.
2018
editMagnus Carlsen won for a record sixth time, defeating Anish Giri on tiebreak after both finished with a score of 9/13.
2019
editMagnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9/13.
2020s
edit2020
editFabiano Caruana was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 10/13.
2021
editJorden van Foreest was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 8½/13. He defeated Anish Giri in an Armageddon playoff.
2022
editMagnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9½/13.
2023
editAnish Giri won the 85th edition Tata Steel Chess 2023 finishing the tournament with 8½ out of 13 points. He defeated the world's top two ranked players (Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren) in the process.
2024
editWei Yi was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 8½/13. He was tied with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh D, and Anish Giri, but won against Abdusattorov and then Gukesh (who had defeated Giri) in the blitz single-elimination tiebreak.
See also
editReferences
editNotes
- ^ "Anand leads at Tata Steel Chess". IndiaVoice. 25 January 2011. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
- ^ "Participants Tata Tournament announced". ChessVibes. 21 October 2010. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010.
- ^ Barden, Leonard (12 January 2018). "Magnus Carlsen aims for strong showing at 'Wimbledon of chess' event". The Guardian.
- ^ "Magnus Carlsen wins Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2018". FIDE. 29 January 2018. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
the Tata Steel Chess, often called as "Wimbledon of Chess", celebrated its 80th anniversary
- ^ "All-time Tournaments – Tata Steel Chess".
- ^ "Tournament – Tata Steel Chess Tournament".
Bibliography
- Damsky, Yakov; Sugden, John (2005), The Batsford Book of Chess Records, Batsford, p. 164, ISBN 0-7134-8946-4
- Golombek, Harry (1977), "Hoogoven Chess Tournament", Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Batsford, p. 143, ISBN 0-517-53146-1
- Kings, Queens & Rookies. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament. A Celebration of 85 Years.. Ed.: Peter Boel & Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam. Alkmaar, New in Ches, 2023. ISBN 9789493257771