The JR Chess Report (January 15): Wijk aan Zee Begins; Ukrainians face off for 1st in New Delhi

[Jack Rabbit]

Corus Tata Steel Tournament Begins in Wijk aan Zee

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament, formerly known as Corus, formerly known as Hoogovens, began today in the Dutch Seaside resort of Wijk aan Zee.

The tournament is divided into three groups of 14 players who will play a round robin tournament (13 games) against each other. The event concludes January 30.

The A group is this year a category 20 featuring six of the world's top ten players: Magnus Carlsen, world champion Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk and American GM Hikaru Nakamura. Group B is a category 17 led by four players rated over 2700: Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, David Navara of Czechia, Laurent Fressinet of France, and Ukrainian GM Zahar Efimenko. Category C is a category 11 led by GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan and Serbian GM Ivan Ivanisevic. This group also features six international masters hungry for grandmaster norms, and the world's newest and youngest grandmaster, 14-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk of Ukraine.

In today's first round action, Anand defeated Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), Jan Smeets (Holland) upset Alexei Shirov (Spain) and Nakamura took down Grischuk; In group B, Navara won a Rook and pawn ending from Wojtaszek, Gabriel Sargissian (Armenia) won with Knight and pawns from Surya Ganguly (India), Luke McShane (England) beat Wouter Spoelman (Holland) and Efimenko exploited his extra piece in a Rook and Bishop against Rook ending to defeat Jan Ludwig Hammer (Norway); in Group C, Nyzhnyk started his Wijk aan Zee record on a positive note by beating the top-seeded Kazhgaleyev, Polish GM Dariusz Swiercz bested Dutch IM Jan Willem de Jong, Italian GM Daniele Vocaturo took down Dutch IM Robin van Kempen and Indian IM Tania Sachdev scored a huge upset victory with Black against Ivanisevic in just 30 moves.

Although then name is new, the tournament most certainly is not. This is the 73rd edition of the tournament that began in 1938 when Koninklijke Hoogovens, a Dutch steel manufacturer, sponsored a three-round event among four Dutch master in the city of Beverwijk. It has been played every year since except 1945, when the Dutch nation was battling for liberation from the Nazis. Despite the war and occupation, the tournament grew in size and was a ten-player event from 1946 until 1963, when the event featured 18 players, including former world championship challenger David Bronstein. From 1964 to 1980, the event had 16 contestants and has had its present number of 14 since 1981. In 1968, the tournament venue was changed from Beverwijk to the nearby fishing village of Wijk aan Zee, which was building a tourist industry. In 1999, Hoogovens merged with British Steel to become the Corus Group, and the following year the event became known as the Corus Chess Tournament. The Corus Group was purchased by Tata Steel of India in 2007 and last year took the name Tata Steel Europe, thus prompting the event's new name.

The action can be seen on the official website. Games begin atm 1:30 pm local time (6:30 am PST).


Areshchenko, Kabuzov Tied Going to Last Round in New Delhi

Ukrainian grandmasters Alexander Areshchenko and Yuriy Kuzubov are tied for first place going to the eleventh and final round tomorrow in the 9th Parsvnath International Open in the Indian capital of New Delhi.

Areshenko and Kuzubov have 8½ points each in the first ten rounds. Ten players are tied for second with 8 point apiece, including 17year-old Indian GM Parimarjan Negi, who won his first 6 games in a row and led the tournament most of the way.

Tomorrow's round begins at 10 am in Delhi (8:30 pm tonight PST) and can be viewed at the official website.

Over three hundred chess players are competing in the event.


COMING ATTRACTIONS

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 24 January-3 February.
Moscow Open 28 January-7 February. This year the Moscow Open features a new format.
Aeroflot Open, Moscow 8-17 February.
27th International Open, Cappelle-la-Grande 26 February-5 March.
Reykjavik Open 9-16 March.