This article is about the annual chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. For the chess tournament in Kolkata, see Tata Steel India Chess Tournament.
Playing hall of the 80th Tata Steel Tournament, 2018
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.[1] 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 renamed the Corus Chess Tournament. Corus Group was taken over by the Tata Group and became Tata Steel Europe in 2007,[2] with the tournament changing to its current name in 2011. It has also been referred to as "Wijk aan Zee" since the venue change from the town of Beverwijk to the town of Wijk aan Zee in 1968. Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings; for example, the 2025 event was referred to as the 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament.[3][4]
Top grandmasters compete in the tournament, but regular club players are welcome to play in the lower groups.[1] The Masters group pits fourteen of the world's best players against each other in a round-robin tournament, and has sometimes been described as the "Wimbledon of Chess".[5][6] Since 1938, there has been a long list of very strong winners; of the fifteen undisputed World Chess Champions since the first tournament in 1938, only five – Alexander Alekhine, Vasily Smyslov, Bobby Fischer, Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju – have not won it. In 2001, nine of the top ten players in the world participated.[1]
Magnus Carlsen holds the record for most wins at the tournament, with eight. Viswanathan Anand is the only other player to have won the event five or more times, with five titles to his name. R Praggnanandhaa is the defending champion after defeating Gukesh in the tiebreaks in 2025.
Until recently, players ending on the same score shared the title. The first tie-break was held in 2018, with Magnus Carlsen defeating Anish Giri to clinch the title.[6] As of the 2025 edition, if two or more players lead with the same score at the end of the round-robin, they all take part in the tiebreaks to determine the sole winner. The time control of the tiebreaks is blitz, and then sudden death.[a][7]
Tournament history
Hoogovens Beverwijk
The early tournaments were very small, starting with groups of four in 1938, and entry restricted to Dutch players. The first four tournaments continued this way, until 1942, when it was expanded to six players, and in 1943 to eight players. No tournament was held in 1945 due to World War II.[further explanation needed] The first international tournament was held in 1946, with the field expanded to ten, and invitations to Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium) and Gösta Stoltz (Sweden) along with a Dutch contingent of eight.[1]
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.[8]
Normal people have to see Naples before they die..., but a chess grandmaster has to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament first of all.
Commonly attributed to Bent Larsen, winner of the 1960 and 1961 editions[1]
The tournament field was increased to twelve in 1953, 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.[9]
As the tournament grew in stature, it began to offer lower groups such as a B-group (sometimes called "Challengers" in contrast to group-A or "Masters"), and occasionally a C-group. There also began a tradition to operate a year on year policy of inviting the winner of the B-group to the A-group.[1][10]
Former WCC Mikhail Tal, pictured at Hoogovens 1973, which he went on to winFormer WCC Anatoly Karpov, a 2 time winner vs GM Paul van der Sterren, pictured at Hoogovens 1988; Karpov went on to winGM Jan Timman, a 2 time winner vs WCC Garry Kasparov, a 3 time winner, pictured at Hoogovens 1999; Kasparov went on to win
The tournament was moved to the Dutch seaside town Wijk aan Zee in 1968.[12] Starting from 1982, the tournament mostly settled to its present number of 14 players. The winners of the top group were:[10][11]
GM Judit Polgar pictured at Hoogovens 1998; she came 2nd in the 2003 edition–the highest position by a woman in the tournamentWCC Viswanathan Anand, who is also a 5 time winner, pictured at Corus 2010
From 2000, the formal name for the tournament was changed to the "Corus Chess Tournament".[12] The winners of the A-group were:[10][11]
WCC Magnus Carlsen, who is also an 8 time winner, pictured at Tata Steel 2013, which he went on to winWCC Magnus Carlsen vs former WCC Viswanathan Anand, pictured at Tata Steel 2019, which Carlsen went on to winA group photo of the 14 GMs competing in the Masters section of Tata Steel Chess 2025, including WCC Gukesh Dommaraju (sitting center) and eventual winner R Praggnanandhaa (sitting, 2nd from right)
From 2011, the formal name changed to the "Tata Steel Chess Tournament".[12] The winners of the Masters section were:[10][11]
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