Wijk aan Zee 2013: Tata Steel Chess Super-GM lineup
This event, which has been played in the wind-swept Dutch sea resort
since 1938 and was formerly known as the Corus Chess Tournament, is now
named after the Indian steel company that bought Corus. The GM Group A
features the world's number 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 players and is a
Category 20 tournament. The first round is on January 12. Pre-tournament
information with history and statistics.
Information and schedule
This event starts with an opening ceremony on Friday January 11th. The first
round is played on Saturday 12th, the last on Sunday, January 27th, 2013. The
venue is as usual the De Moriaan Center in Wijk aan Zee. The tournament has
taken place since 1938 and was known as the Corus Chess Tournament. The Indian
company Tata Steel bought Corus (for US $7.6 billion) in 2006 and the chess
event was renamed accordingly.
Wijk aan Zee (pronounced vyke ahn zeh – to rhyme with "like on say")
is a small wind-swept town on the coast
of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the province of North
Holland of the Netherlands.
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The Tata Steel Chess Tournament has three main GM groups, which play round
robin tournaments (each competitor plays in turn against every other in the
same group). All three groups have 14 players each and start on January 12th.
All rounds begin at 13.30 hours (you can check your local
time here), except for the last round on January 27th, which begins at 12.00
hours. There are rest days: on January 16th, 21st, and 24th.
January 2013
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F
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12
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14
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21
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25
26
27
28
29
30
Rate of play: For all three groups the rate of play is 100
minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes for
the rest of the game, with a 30 seconds/move increment starting with the first
move of the game.
History
The event has been held since 1938, when it was a four-player round robin over
three days. The sponsor was Hoogoven and the venue Beverwijk, a town close to
Wijk, where many players today take their dinner. From 1940 onwards Max Euwe
participated, but in 1942 the tournament turned into a six-player event, and
in 1943 into an eight-player event. The final year of WWII, 1945, was the only
time the tournament was not staged. As from 1946 it was a ten-player event,
with some exceptions: 12 players in 1953, 18 in 1963, and then 16 players from
1964 onwards. In 1980 the first 14-player tournament was held (and won by Walter
Brown and Yasser Seirawan), and that is the way it stayed, with some exceptions
in 1993-1995. From 1996 onwards it reverted to fourteen players and has stayed
that way until today. In 1968 it moved to Wijk aan Zee, and in 2000 it was renamed
Corus, after the main sponsor. You can click on any of the tournaments listed
below for participants, results, cross tables, etc.
You will find full statistics for all players in all tournaments here.
Participants of Tata Steel 2013
Grandmaster Group A
Title
Player
Nat.
Rating
WRk
GM
Carlsen, Magnus
NOR
2861
1
GM
Aronian, Levon
ARM
2802
3
GM
Caruana, Fabiano
ITA
2781
5
GM
Karjakin, Sergey
RUS
2780
6
GM
Anand, Viswanathan
IND
2772
7
GM
Nakamura, Hikaru
USA
2769
9
GM
Wang, Hao
CHN
2752
14
GM
Leko, Peter
HUN
2735
19
GM
Giri, Anish
NED
2720
29
GM
Harikrishna, Pentala
IND
2698
49
GM
van Wely, Loek
NED
2679
68
GM
Sokolov, Ivan
NED
2663
82
GM
L'Ami, Erwin
NED
2627
145
GM
Hou, Yifan
CHN
2603
215
Average rating: 2732 – Category:
20
The average rating in Group A is 22.5 points lower that in the
previous year, and the category has dropped from 21 to 20. On the other
hand the tournament has some very interesting new players, including the former
Women's World Champion Hou Yifan from China, who is making her debut here.
Grandmaster Group B
Title
Player
Nat.
Rating
GM
Naiditsch, Arkadij
GER
2708
GM
Movsesian, Sergei
ARM
2688
GM
Edouard, Romain
FRA
2686
GM
Tiviakov, Sergey
NED
2655
GM
Ni, Hua
CHN
2646
GM
Turov, Maxim
RUS
2630
GM
Rapport, Richard
HUN
2621
GM
Nikolic, Predrag
BIH
2619
GM
Smeets, Jan
NED
2615
GM
Dubov, Daniil
RUS
2600
GM
Ipatov, Alexander
TUR
2587
GM
van Kampen, Robin
NED
2581
GM
Grandelius, Nils
SWE
2572
GM
Timman, Jan
NED
2566
Average rating: 2627 – Category:
16
This group is considerably stronger than last year, with the average rating
climbing by 24.5 points and the category from 15 to 16. Unfortunately there
are no female players in this section – last year there were three.
Grandmaster Group C
Title
Player
Nat.
Rating
GM
Peralta, Fernando
ARG
2617
GM
Kovchan, Alexander
UKR
2579
GM
Brunello, Sabino
ITA
2572
GM
Mekhitarian, Krikor
BRA
2543
GM
Romanishin, Oleg
UKR
2521
IM
Gretarsson, Hjörvar Steinn
ISL
2516
GM
Swinkels, Robin
NED
2508
IM
Burg, Twan
NED
2492
IM
van der Werf, Mark
NED
2450
IM
Klein, David
NED
2445
WGM
Goryachkina, Alexandra
RUS
2402
IM
Bitensky, Igor
ISR
2400
FM
Admiraal, Miguoël
NED
2321
WIM
Schut, Lisa
NED
2295
Average rating: 2476 – Category:
10
In 2009 this group had an average rating of 2455, in 2010 it climbed to 2507,
and in 2012 it was 2454. This year the average is the lowest in years, but the
players also the most interesting, with a number of fresh young faces, like...
Alexandra Goryachkina, who is just 14 but has a strong IM-level rating
Commentary
There will be full broadcast of all games on the official site and on the Playchess
server, which will provide live audio commentary of the most interesting
games (free for Premium members) starting at 15:00h for each round, 14:00h for
the final round.
GM Daniel King analyzes Aronian-Nakamura in his round one wrap-up in 2012
