Dear Chess Friend,

everyday on the chess boards all over the world and here at ChessBase things happen that every chess enthusiast is interested in. And I would like to tell you what's going on, for example...

Tata Steel Chess Tournament:
Top level chess in Wijk and on the screen

On Saturday (14th January) the Tata Steel Chess tournament will begin in Wijk aan Zee. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, the world's number one and two will be taking part. We support the tournament with current news on the ChessBase websites and live commentary by GM Daniel King and GM Yasser Seirawan on the playchess server. Enjoy!

Dates: 14-29 January,
Rest days: 18, 23 and 29 January,
Daily starting time: 1:30 pm, last round 12 (noon) (local time)
 

Watch and learn

With the live commentary of Yannick Pelletier, Daniel King, Yasser Seirawan an Lawrence Trent you can feel the tension on the boards at home while seeing how grandmasters think. (The commentary is in English.)

GM Daniel King


GM Yasser Seirawan


Commentator schedule:

The commentary will begin around 3pm, it will be live and will last about 2.5 hours. At 8 pm a summary with the highlights of the day will follow.

Get premium access

The best way to get access to the live commentary is premium access to the playchess server. As a premium member you can use everything that is offered on the server without additional costs: training videos, live commentary, simultaneous events, etc.

For premium serial numbers go to the ChessBase Shop.

Activation is possible with one of the recent Fritz programs (Fritz 12 with service pack 1 or Fritz 13) or via the free access program (download at playchess.com).

Fritz 13 with six months premium access in the shop...

Participants group A

With Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian two of the three players with a rating of more than 2800 are playing in Wijk. The two are also number one and number two on the world's ranking list. Hikaru Nakamura starts as defending champion. Boris Gelfand will challenge World Champion Anand at the next World Championship match (which will be played in Moscow in May). This year, Viswanathan Anand, record winner of the Wijk tournaments, won't be taking part, nor will Vladimir Kramnik. Loek van Wely and Anish Giri are the local boys in the A-tournament. For job-related reasons, Luke McShane, last year's winner of the B-tournament, had to decline to play in the A-tournament.

Mini-Magnus playing the B-tournament in 2004

Maxi-Magnus 2011

Participants group B

Traditionally, the B-tournament in Wijk aan Zee is strong and everywhere else it would be an "A-tournament". The winner will be invited to next year's A-tournament. The Dutch hosts are fielding five local players, among them former World Championship candidate and FIDE Vice-World Champion Jan Timman.

The "grand old man" of dutch chess: Jan Timman

Lazaro Bruzon from Cuba and reigning European Champion Vladimir Potkin are the top seeds. Harika Dronavalli and Viktorija Cmilyte represent womankind.

 

Roll of honour

(Winners of the respective top group)

Tournaments in Beverwijk

1938 - Philip Bakker
1939 - Nicolaas Cortlever
1940 - Max Euwe
1941 - Arthur Wijnans
1942 - Max Euwe
1943 - Arnold van den Hoek
1944 - Theo van Scheltinga
1945 - no tournament
1946 - Alberic O'Kelly de Galway
1947 - Theo van Scheltinga
1948 - Lodewijk Prins
1949 - Savielly Tartakower
1950 - Jan Hein Donner
1951 - Herman Pilnik
1952 - Max Euwe
1953 - Nicolas Rossolimo
1954 - Hans Bouwmeester and Vasja Pirc
1955 - Borislav Milic
1956 - Gideon Stahlberg
1957 - Aleksandar Matanovic
1958 - Max Euwe und Jan Hein Donner
1959 - Fridrik Olafsson
1960 - Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian
1961 - Bent Larsen and Borislav Ivkov
1962 - Petar Trifunovic
1963 - Jan Hein Donner
1964 - Paul Keres and Iivo Nei
1965 - Lajos Portisch and Efim Geller
1966 - Lev Polugayevsky
1967 - Boris Spassky

Tournaments in Wijk aan Zee

Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee

1968 - Viktor Kortschnoi
1969 - Michail Botvinnik and Efim Geller
1970 - Mark Taimanov
1971 - Viktor Kortschnoi
1972 - Lajos Portisch
1973 - Michail Tal
1974 - Walter Browne
1975 - Lajos Portisch
1976 - Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Fridrik Olafsson
1977 - Genna Sosonko and Efim Geller
1978 - Lajos Portisch
1979 - Lev Polugayevsky
1980 - Walter Browne and Yasser Seirawan
1981 - Genna Sosonko and Jan Timman
1982 - John Nunn and Juri Balashov
1983 - Ulf Andersson
1984 - Alexander Beliavsky and Viktor Kortschnoi
1985 - Jan Timman
1986 - Nigel Short
1987 - Nigel Short and Viktor Kortschnoi
1988 - Anatoli Karpov
1989 - Viswanathan Anand, Predrag Nikolic, Zoltan Ribli and Gyula Sax
1990 - John Nunn
1991 - John Nunn
1992 - Boris Gelfand and Valeri Salvw
1993 - Anatoli Karpov
1994 - Predrag Nikolic
1995 - Alexei Dreev
1996 - Vassily Ivanchuk
1997 - Valeri Salov
1998 - Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand
1999 - Garry Kasparov

Corus Chess Tournaments

2001 - Garry Kasparov
2002 - Evgeny Bareev
2003 - Viswanathan Anand
2004 - Viswanathan Anand
2005 - Peter Leko
2006 - Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand
2007 - Levon Aronian, Teymour Radjabov and Veselin Topalov
2008 - Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen
2009 - Sergey Karjakin
2010 - Magnus Carlsen

Tata-Steel Chess Tournament

2011 Hikaru Nakamura
 

How now?

Behind the dunes

The players' hotel Zeeduin


If you are looking for an alternative to chess

When the Indian company Tata bought the Dutch-British steel syndicate Corus, they also took over responsibility for the chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Traditionally, this tournament is sponsored by the owner of the steel plant in Ijmuiden, which is close by. In the beginning it was the Dutch company Hoogovens, from 2001 until 2011 the British-Dutch steel syndicate Corus, and since 2011 it has been the Indian company Tata, which "swallowed" Corus for 9.3 billion.

Before that Corus had given the organisers in Wijk aan Zee a binding promise to support the tournament until 2013. Tata has not yet declared whether they want to continue their commitment or not, that is, this year's tournament might well be the second to last in the tournament's history.

But maybe the traditional chess festival will continue to be played after 2013. Chess fans would definitely be happy.

See you next time

André Schulz

ChessBase Schachprogramme Schachdatenbank Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Mexikoring 35 - 22297 Hamburg
Telefon: 040-63 90 60 0 - Fax: 040 630 12 82
Geschäftsführer: Matthias Wüllenweber und Rainer Woisin,
HR Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 40336
UST-ID-Nr. DE 118644875 Finanzamt Hamburg-Nord - St.-Nr. 26/834/00362