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
Player Nat. Magnus Carlsen NOR Viswanathan Anand IND Levon Aronian ARM Vladimir Kramnik RUS Alexander Grischuk RUS Hikaru Nakamura USA Ruslan Ponomariov UKR Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS Wang Hao CHN Alexei Shirov SPA Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA Anish Giri NED Jan Smeets NED Erwin l'Ami NED
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
Player Radek Wojtaszek David Navara Laurant Fressinet Zahar Efimenko Wesley So Gabriel Sargissian Le Quang Liem Luke McShane Surya Ganguly Li Chao Jon Ludvig Hammer Vlad Tkachiev Friso Nijboer Wouter Spoelman
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
Player Murtas Kazhgaleyev Ivan Ivanisevic Mark Bluvshtein Daniele Vocaturo Dariusz Swiercz Ilya Nyzhnyk Katherina Lahno Roeland Pruijssers Benjamin Bok Robin van Kampen Sebastian Siebrecht Mark van der Werf Jan Willem de Jong Tania Sachdev
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
Group B
Group C
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 | |
Wow January is made. Thanks for all the info Chess Queen.
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