BOTW: 2018.1.12
TATA Steel/Wijk aan Zee
January 13-28, 2018.
The 80th running of the Dutch by-the-sea classic is the first major chess event of 2018. The 14-player RR includes the traditional mix of world's top tier and weaker but interesting players, a mix which should ensure fighting chess as the top seeds have to play to win every game against the lower-rated guests:
| Name | FIDE | Country | Rank |
| Carlsen, Magnus | 2834 | NOR | 1 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | 2811 | USA | 2 |
| Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 2804 | AZE | 3 |
| So, Wesley | 2792 | USA | 6 |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | 2787 | RUS | 7 |
| Svidler, Peter | 2768 | RUS | 10 |
| Anand, Viswanathan | 2767 | IND | 11 |
| Karjakin, Sergey | 2753 | RUS | 14 |
| Giri, Anish | 2752 | NED | 15 |
| Wei, Yi | 2743 | CHN | 22 |
| Matlakov, Maxim | 2718 | RUS | 32 |
| Hou, Yifan | 2680 | CHN | 64 |
| Adhiban, B. | 2655 | IND | 96 |
| Jones, Gawain | 2640 | ENG | 127 |
Notes:
- Carlsen: the World Champion won the FIDE Blitz Championship in December, but hasn't won a top classic since 2016.
- So: the defending Champion.
- Kramnik has played in Wijk 12 times, his best result being =1st with Anand in 1998.
- Svidler is now the 8-time Russian Champion, having won again in 2017.
- Anand first played in Wijk 29 years ago -- before 9 of the other players were born! The ex-World Champ won the 2017 FIDE Rapid Championship in December.
- Yifan: the #1 FIDE-rated woman in the world, and former Women's World Champion.
- Jones: qualified by winning the Challengers Group in 2017.
Interesting Rounds:
- 1: Carlsen - Caruana
- 4: Giri - Carlsen
- 5: Carlsen - Kramnik
- 7: Anand - Kramnik, and Mamedyarov - Wei Yi
- 13: Karjakin - Carlsen
Live Games and Commentary (starts 7:30 EST)
Commentators include Robin van Kampen, Yasser Seirawan, and Eric Hansen, who will do onsite commentary from rounds 6-13.
https://www.tatasteelchess.com/live/live-games
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments
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