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Friday, January 14, 2011

Tata Steel Chess Super-GM starts on Saturday

Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi Everybody,

Mark your calendars from January 15 to 30 for the Tata Steel Chess Super-GM Tournament in the beautiful city of Wijk aan Zee. The tournament is divided into three Grandmaster group plus several other amateur events. The three Grandmaster tournaments have 14 players each and are round robins (each competitor plays against every other) as the tradition has been.

You have some excellent coverage coming up at the official website, www.chessbase.com, www.chessvibes.com, www.chessdom.com and www.chess-news.ru (in Russian). Then, of course, we are always here at www.chessblog.com to lead you to the best links and updates out there. You can also catch the great commentary at the super server of playchess.

Speaking of super things, you'll love the photographs of Fred Lucas as always.

Meanwhile, here is Grandmaster Robert Fontaine's presentation of the Tata Steel Super Chess 2011.



Now, on to the details.

Participants of Grandmaster Group A
Title
PlayerNat.
Rating
rank
info
GM
Magnus CarlsenNOR
2814
1
GM
Viswanathan AnandIND
2810
2
GM
Levon AronianARM
2805
3
GM
Vladimir KramnikRUS
2784
4
GM
Alexander GrischukRUS
2773
7
GM
Hikaru NakamuraUSA
2751
10
GM
Ruslan PonomariovUKR
2744
11
GM
Ian NepomniachtchiRUS
2733
15
GM
Wang HaoCHN
2731
17
GM
Alexei ShirovSPA
2722
24
GM
Maxime Vachier-LagraveFRA
2715
31
GM
Anish GiriNED
2686
52
GM
Jan SmeetsNED
2662
82
GM
Erwin l'AmiNED
2628
138
Average rating: 2740 – Category: 20
The average rating in Group A is almost 21 points higher that in the previous year, and the category has climbed from 19 to 20. The world's top four players are present: world number one Magnus Carlsen (who is last year's winner), World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Armenian GM Levon Aronian and Anand's predecessor Vladimir Kramnik. The next two on the FIDE list are missing (Karjakin and Topalov), but the list continues with number seven Alexander Grischuk. Anish Giri debuts after getting a place in this group by winning the 2010 B tournament.

Participants of Grandmaster Group B

Title
Player
Nat.
Rating
info
GM
Radek Wojtaszek
POL
2726
GM
David Navara
CZE
2708
GM
Laurant Fressinet
FRA
2707
GM
Zahar Efimenko
UKR
2701
GM
Wesley So
PHL
2673
GM
Gabriel Sargissian
ARM
2667
GM
Le Quang Liem
VNM
2664
GM
Luke McShane
ENG
2664
GM
Surya Ganguly
IND
2651
GM
Li Chao
CHN
2649
GM
Jon Ludvig Hammer
NOR
2647
GM
Vlad Tkachiev
FRA
2636
GM
Friso Nijboer
NLD
2584
GM
Wouter Spoelman
NLD
2547
Average rating: 2659 – Category: 17
This group is also stronger than last year, the average rating climbing by thirty points. All players are full GMs. Top seed Radek Wojtaszek is Anand's second in his World Championship matches, as is Surya Ganguly from India.

Participants of Grandmaster Group C

Title
Player
Nat.
Rating
info
GM
Murtas Kazhgaleyev
KAZ
2637
GM
Ivan Ivanisevic
SRB
2630
GM
Mark Bluvshtein
CAN
2590
GM
Daniele Vocaturo
ITA
2570
GM
Dariusz Swiercz
POL
2540
IM
Ilya Nyzhnyk
UKR
2530
GM
Katherina Lahno
UKR
2518
IM
Roeland Pruijssers
NED
2484
IM
Benjamin Bok
NLD
2453
IM
Robin van Kampen
NLD
2443
GM
Sebastian Siebrecht
GER
2439
IM
Mark van der Werf
NLD
2439
IM
Jan Willem de Jong
NLD
2437
IM
Tania Sachdev
IND
2382
Average rating: 2507 – Category: 11
Last year this group had an average rating of 2455, which this year has climbed to over 2500, making the C Group a category 11. There are two female players – making two out of 42 participants in all three groups: Kateryna Lahno from Ukraine and Tania Sachdev from India.

Rate of play

For all three groups the rate of play is 40 moves in 100 minutes, followed by 20 moves in 50 minutes, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment per move.

Location: The tournament takes place in the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee). There is running commentary on the games of the Grandmaster Groups in a special Chess Pavilion, on the Village Green in Wijk aan Zee (one minute walk from De Moriaan).

All the first round pairings


Group A


Round 1 - Saturday the 15th
R. Ponomariov - A. Anand
E. l'Ami - A. Giri
J. Smeets - A. Shirov
M. Carlsen - L. Aronian
H. Nakamura - A. Grischuk
M. Vachier-Lagrave - W. Hao
I. Nepomniachtchi - V. Kramnik

Group B

Round 1 - Saturday the 15th
V. Tkachiev - L. Fressinet
F. Nijboer - L. Chao
L. McShane - W. Spoelman
R. Wojtaszek - D. Navara
L. Liem - W. So
G. Sargissian - S. Ganguly
J. Hammer - Z. Efimenko

Group C

Round 1 - Saturday the 15th
M. van der Werf - B. Bok
S. Siebrecht - R. Pruijssers
I. Ivanisevic - T. Sachdev
K. Lahno - M. Bluvshtein
D. Swiercz - J.W. de Jong
I. Nyzhnyk - M. Kazhgaleyev
R. van Kampen - D. Vocaturo

All set? Stay tuned.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

1 comment:

  1. Wow January is made. Thanks for all the info Chess Queen.

    ReplyDelete

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