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 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.
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).
The 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) Philip Bakker (Netherlands) |
2 | 1939 | Nicolaas Cortlever (Netherlands) |
3 | 1940 | Max Euwe (Netherlands) |
4 | 1941 | Arthur Wijnans (Netherlands) |
5 | 1942 | Max Euwe (Netherlands) |
6 | 1943 | Arnold van den Hoek (Netherlands) |
7 | 1944 | Theo van Scheltinga (Netherlands) |
– | 1945 | No competition (due to World War II) |
8 | 1946 | Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium) |
9 | 1947 | Theo van Scheltinga (Netherlands) |
10 | 1948 | Lodewijk Prins (Netherlands) |
11 | 1949 | Savielly Tartakower (France) |
12 | 1950 | Jan Hein Donner (Netherlands) |
13 | 1951 | Hermann Pilnik (Argentina) |
14 | 1952 | Max Euwe (Netherlands) |
15 | 1953 | Nicolas Rossolimo (France) |
16 | 1954 | Hans Bouwmeester (Netherlands) Vasja Pirc (Yugoslavia) |
17 | 1955 | Borislav Milić (Yugoslavia) |
18 | 1956 | Gideon Ståhlberg (Sweden) |
19 | 1957 | Aleksandar Matanović (Yugoslavia) |
20 | 1958 | Max Euwe (Netherlands) Jan Hein Donner (Netherlands) |
21 | 1959 | Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland) |
22 | 1960 | Bent Larsen (Denmark) Tigran Petrosian (Soviet Union) |
23 | 1961 | Bent Larsen (Denmark) Borislav Ivkov (Yugoslavia) |
24 | 1962 | Petar Trifunović (Yugoslavia) |
25 | 1963 | Jan Hein Donner (Netherlands) |
26 | 1964 | Paul Keres (Soviet Union) Iivo Nei (Soviet Union) |
27 | 1965 | Lajos Portisch (Hungary) Efim Geller (Soviet Union) |
28 | 1966 | Lev Polugaevsky (Soviet Union) |
29 | 1967 | Boris Spassky (Soviet Union) |
The 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 | Viktor Korchnoi (Soviet Union) |
31 | 1969 | Mikhail Botvinnik (Soviet Union) Efim Geller (Soviet Union) |
32 | 1970 | Mark Taimanov (Soviet Union) |
33 | 1971 | Viktor Korchnoi (Soviet Union) |
34 | 1972 | Lajos Portisch (Hungary) |
35 | 1973 | Mikhail Tal (Soviet Union) |
36 | 1974 | Walter Browne (United States) |
37 | 1975 | Lajos Portisch (Hungary) |
38 | 1976 | Ljubomir Ljubojević (Yugoslavia) Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland) |
39 | 1977 | Gennadi Sosonko (Netherlands) Efim Geller (Soviet Union) |
40 | 1978 | Lajos Portisch (Hungary) |
41 | 1979 | Lev Polugaevsky (Soviet Union) |
42 | 1980 | Walter Browne (United States) Yasser Seirawan (United States) |
43 | 1981 | Gennadi Sosonko (Netherlands) Jan Timman (Netherlands) |
44 | 1982 | John Nunn (United Kingdom) Yuri Balashov (Soviet Union) |
45 | 1983 | Ulf Andersson (Sweden) |
46 | 1984 | Alexander Beliavsky (Soviet Union) Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) |
47 | 1985 | Jan Timman (Netherlands) |
48 | 1986 | Nigel Short (United Kingdom) |
49 | 1987 | Nigel Short (United Kingdom) Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) |
50 | 1988 | Anatoly Karpov (Soviet Union) |
51 | 1989 | Viswanathan Anand (India) Predrag Nikolić (Yugoslavia) Zoltán Ribli (Hungary) Gyula Sax (Hungary) |
52 | 1990 | John Nunn (United Kingdom) |
53 | 1991 | John Nunn (United Kingdom) |
54 | 1992 | Valery Salov (Russia) Boris Gelfand (Belarus) |
55 | 1993 | Anatoly Karpov (Russia) |
56 | 1994 | Predrag Nikolić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
57 | 1995 | Alexey Dreev (Russia) |
58 | 1996 | Vasyl Ivanchuk (Ukraine) |
59 | 1997 | Valery Salov (Russia) |
60 | 1998 | Viswanathan Anand (India) Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) |
61 | 1999 | Garry Kasparov (Russia) |
From 2000, the popular name for the tournament was more or less equally shared between "Wijk aan Zee" and "Corus".
# | Year | Winner(s) |
---|---|---|
62 | 2000 | Garry Kasparov (Russia) |
63 | 2001 | Garry Kasparov (Russia) |
64 | 2002 | Evgeny Bareev (Russia) |
65 | 2003 | Viswanathan Anand (India) |
66 | 2004 | Viswanathan Anand (India) |
67 | 2005 | Peter Leko (Hungary) |
68 | 2006 | Viswanathan Anand (India) Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) |
69 | 2007 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) |
70 | 2008 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
71 | 2009 | Sergey Karjakin (Russia) |
72 | 2010 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
From 2011, the popular name for the tournament was changed from 'Corus' to 'Tata Steel'.
# | Year | Winner(s) |
---|---|---|
73 | 2011 | Hikaru Nakamura (United States) |
74 | 2012 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) |
75 | 2013 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
76 | 2014 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) |
77 | 2015 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
78 | 2016 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
79 | 2017 | Wesley So (United States) |
80 | 2018 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
81 | 2019 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
82 | 2020 | Fabiano Caruana (United States) |
83 | 2021 | Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) |
84 | 2022 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
85 | 2023 | Anish Giri (Netherlands) |
86 | 2024 | Wei Yi (China) |
87 | 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 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 |
---|---|---|
Magnus Carlsen | 8 (1 shared) | 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022 |
Viswanathan Anand | 5 (3 shared) | 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006 |
Max Euwe | 4 (1 shared) | 1940, 1942, 1952, 1958 |
Levon Aronian | 4 (2 shared) | 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014 |
Viktor Korchnoi | 4 (2 shared) | 1968, 1971, 1984, 1987 |
Lajos Portisch | 4 (1 shared) | 1965, 1972, 1975, 1978 |
Jan Hein Donner | 3 (1 shared) | 1950, 1958, 1963 |
Efim Geller | 3 (3 shared) | 1965, 1969, 1977 |
Garry Kasparov | 3 | 1999, 2000, 2001 |
John Nunn | 3 (1 shared) | 1982, 1990, 1991 |
Walter Browne | 2 (1 shared) | 1974, 1980 |
Anatoly Karpov | 2 | 1988, 1993 |
Bent Larsen | 2 (2 shared) | 1960, 1961 |
Predrag Nikolić | 2 (1 shared) | 1989, 1994 |
Friðrik Ólafsson | 2 (1 shared) | 1959, 1976 |
Lev Polugaevsky | 2 | 1966, 1979 |
Valery Salov | 2 (1 shared) | 1992, 1997 |
Gennadi Sosonko | 2 (2 shared) | 1977, 1981 |
Nigel Short | 2 (1 shared) | 1986, 1987 |
Jan Timman | 2 (1 shared) | 1981, 1985 |
Veselin Topalov | 2 (2 shared) | 2006, 2007 |
Theo van Scheltinga | 2 | 1944, 1947 |
Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 8½/13, winning his second title.
Hikaru Nakamura finished first with a score of 9/13, winning his first title and his first super-tournament.
Levon Aronian finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a third time.
Magnus 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.
Levon Aronian finished first with a score of 8/13, winning the title for a fourth time.
Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a fourth time.
Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a record-equalling fifth time.
Wesley So defeated defending champion Magnus Carlsen by one point, with a score of 9/13.
Magnus Carlsen won for a record sixth time, defeating Anish Giri on tiebreak after both finished with a score of 9/13.
Magnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9/13.
Fabiano Caruana was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 10/13, matching the records of Kasparov and Carlsen in 1999 and 2013 respectively.
Jorden van Foreest was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 8½/13. He defeated Anish Giri in an Armageddon playoff.
Magnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9½/13.
Anish 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.
Wei 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.
The 87th edition is scheduled to be held from 17 January to 2 February 2025.
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster, a former five-time World Chess Champion and a two-time Chess World Cup Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time. In 2022, he was elected the deputy president of FIDE.
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning Chess World Cup Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games.
Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster.
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.
Levon Grigori Aronian is an Armenian-American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at age 17. He is a former world rapid and blitz champion and has held the No. 2 position in the March 2014 FIDE world chess rankings with a rating of 2830, becoming the fourth highest-rated player in history.
Wesley Barbossa So is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster, a three-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the first World Fischer Random Chess Champion. He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ranked number two in the world and had an Elo rating of 2822, making him the fifth-highest-rated player in history.
Fabiano Luigi Caruana is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history.
Anish Kumar Giri is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he completed the requirements for the grandmaster title in 2009 at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days. Giri is a five-time Dutch champion and won the Corus Chess B Group in 2010. He has represented the Netherlands at seven Chess Olympiads. He has also won major international tournaments, including the 2012 Reggio Emilia tournament, 2017 Reykjavik Open, 2023 Tata Steel Chess, and shared 1st place in the 2015 London Chess Classic. In 2019 he won clear first at the Third Edition of the Shenzhen Masters.
The Grand Slam Chess Association was a series of annual chess tournaments since 2007 till 2012.
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final is an annual chess tournament which between 2008 and 2012 brought together the strongest players from the previous year's "Grand Slam" events. Series organisers Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA) became defunct in 2012 due to the demise of the Grand Slam hosts and scheduling problems but the Bilbao Masters continued as an annual invitational event until 2016.
Wei Yi is a Chinese chess grandmaster.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov is an Uzbek chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he qualified for the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 1 month, and 11 days. FIDE awarded him the title in April 2018. He is Uzbekistan's highest-rated grandmaster and currently one of the best chess players in the world.
The Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee Steel Chess Tournament 1999 was the 61st edition of the Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee in January 1999 and was won by world number one Garry Kasparov.
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023 was the 85th edition of the annual chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee. It was held from 13 January to 29 January 2023. The field of 14 players in the Masters section included the numbers one and two of the FIDE world rankings at the time, Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren, as well as five teenage grandmasters. Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo was a late substitute for Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda. For the first time since 2015, Carlsen lost two classical games in a row: first in round 4 against Dutch grandmaster and five-times runner-up Anish Giri, and then in round 5 against the Uzbek teenager Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Going into the last round Abdusattorov had a half point lead over Giri, but he lost his game against Dutch 2021 winner Jorden van Foreest, while Giri defeated Richárd Rapport, making Giri the tournament's winner. Germany's Alexander Donchenko won the Challengers section, securing an invitation to the 2024 Tata Steel Masters section. Both the Masters and Challengers sections were eligible for the 2023 FIDE Circuit.
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 was the 86th edition of the annual chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee from 13–28 January 2024. The competition followed a similar format to the previous year's edition, taking place at the Dorpshuis De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, while round 9 of the Masters section was played at the AFAS Circustheater in The Hague, Netherlands as part of the competition's "Chess on Tour" event.
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2018 was the 80th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee from 13 to 28 January 2018. The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen.
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2013 was the 75th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Previously known as the Corus Chess Tournament, it was renamed after Tata Steel, which purchased the Corus Group. It was held in Wijk aan Zee from 12 to 27 January 2013.
The Corus Chess Tournament 2010 was the 72nd edition of the Corus Chess Tournament. It was the final year under this name, as from 2011 the tournament was known as the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, after Tata Steel purchased the Corus Group. It was held in Wijk aan Zee from 16 to 31 January 2010.
The Corus Chess Tournament 2008 was the 70th edition of the Corus Chess Tournament.
Manuel Bosboom is a Dutch chess player.
Notes
the Tata Steel Chess, often called as "Wimbledon of Chess", celebrated its 80th anniversary
Bibliography