The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel to form the Corus Group in 1999, after which the tournament was called the Corus Chess Tournament. Corus Group became Tata Steel Europe in 2007. Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings; for example, the 2011 event was referred to as the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament.[1] [2]
Top grandmasters compete in the tournament, but regular club players are welcome to play as well. The Masters group pits fourteen of the world's best against each other in a round-robin tournament, and has sometimes been described as the "Wimbledon of Chess".[3] [4] Since 1938, there has been a long list of famous winners, including Max Euwe, Bent Larsen, Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, Lajos Portisch, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Anatoly Karpov, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik, Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, and Magnus Carlsen. Of the ten World Chess Champions since the first tournament in 1938, only four – Alexander Alekhine, Vasily Smyslov, Bobby Fischer, and Ding Liren – have not won it. In 2001, nine of the top ten players in the world participated.
Magnus Carlsen holds the record for most wins at the tournament, with eight titles to his name. Anand is the only other player to have won the event five or more times. Anand also holds the record of most consecutive games played at the tournament without a loss (70 – from 1998 to 2004).
The early tournaments were very small, starting with groups of four in 1938, and entry restricted to Dutch players. The first five tournaments continued this way, with the contest held annually early in January. In 1943 and 1944 the tournament field was doubled in size to eight players. No tournament was held in 1945 due to World War II. The first international tournament was held in 1946. The main tournament field was expanded to ten, with invitations to Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium) and Gösta Stoltz (Sweden) along with a Dutch contingent of eight.
The tournament field remained at ten until 1953 when it was increased to twelve, and an international women's tournament was also held. In 1954 the tournament field was returned to ten players, but the strength of the competitions increased. The field was greatly enlarged to 18 in 1963, and although it reduced to 16 in 1964, the event had become the strongest international chess tournament in the world .
As the tournament grew in stature, the ancillary women's tournament became a regular feature, as did a 'Masters' event and 'Masters Reserves' events. There also began a tradition to operate a year on year invitation policy that resembled the system used in football 'league tables'; the winner of a lesser category event would receive an invitation to the next higher event the following year.
The 1946 tournament was one of the first European international chess tournaments after World War II. Food shortages were still a problem in Europe, so the post-tournament banquet featured pea soup, inexpensive fare of the common people. In subsequent years pea soup has been served as the first course of the concluding banquet, a tradition continued when the tournament was moved from Beverwijk to Wijk aan Zee .
Winners of the top group:[5]
| Year | Winner(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1938 | ||
| 2 | 1939 | ||
| 3 | 1940 | ||
| 4 | 1941 | ||
| 5 | 1942 | ||
| 6 | 1943 | ||
| 7 | 1944 | ||
| – | 1945 | No competition (due to World War II) | |
| 8 | 1946 | ||
| 9 | 1947 | ||
| 10 | 1948 | ||
| 11 | 1949 | ||
| 12 | 1950 | ||
| 13 | 1951 | ||
| 14 | 1952 | ||
| 15 | 1953 | ||
| 16 | 1954 | ||
| 17 | 1955 | ||
| 18 | 1956 | ||
| 19 | 1957 | ||
| 20 | 1958 | ||
| 21 | 1959 | ||
| 22 | 1960 | ||
| 23 | 1961 | ||
| 24 | 1962 | ||
| 25 | 1963 | ||
| 26 | 1964 | ||
| 27 | 1965 | ||
| 28 | 1966 | ||
| 29 | 1967 |
The tournament was moved to the Dutch seaside town Wijk aan Zee in 1968.In this period, the tournament was popularly called both "Hoogovens" and "Wijk aan Zee".Winners of the Grandmaster A group since 1968 have been:
| Year | Winner(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 1968 | ||
| 31 | 1969 | ||
| 32 | 1970 | ||
| 33 | 1971 | ||
| 34 | 1972 | ||
| 35 | 1973 | ||
| 36 | 1974 | ||
| 37 | 1975 | ||
| 38 | 1976 | ||
| 39 | 1977 | ||
| 40 | 1978 | ||
| 41 | 1979 | ||
| 42 | 1980 | ||
| 43 | 1981 | ||
| 44 | 1982 | ||
| 45 | 1983 | ||
| 46 | 1984 | ||
| 47 | 1985 | ||
| 48 | 1986 | ||
| 49 | 1987 | ||
| 50 | 1988 | ||
| 51 | 1989 | ||
| 52 | 1990 | ||
| 53 | 1991 | ||
| 54 | 1992 | ||
| 55 | 1993 | ||
| 56 | 1994 | ||
| 57 | 1995 | ||
| 58 | 1996 | ||
| 59 | 1997 | ||
| 60 | 1998 | ||
| 61 | 1999 |
From 2000, the popular name for the tournament was more or less equally shared between "Wijk aan Zee" and "Corus".
| Year | Winner(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | 2000 | ||
| 63 | 2001 | ||
| 64 | 2002 | ||
| 65 | 2003 | ||
| 66 | 2004 | ||
| 67 | 2005 | ||
| 68 | 2006 | ||
| 69 | 2007 | ||
| 70 | 2008 | ||
| 71 | 2009 | ||
| 72 | 2010 |
From 2011, the popular name for the tournament was changed from 'Corus' to 'Tata Steel'.
| Year | Winner(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 73 | 2011 | ||
| 74 | 2012 | ||
| 75 | 2013 | ||
| 76 | 2014 | ||
| 77 | 2015 | ||
| 78 | 2016 | ||
| 79 | 2017 | ||
| 80 | 2018 | ||
| 81 | 2019 | ||
| 82 | 2020 | ||
| 83 | 2021 | ||
| 84 | 2022 | ||
| 85 | 2023 | ||
| 86 | 2024 |
Until recently, players ending on the same score shared the title.
The first tie-break was held in 2018, with Magnus Carlsen defeating Anish Giri 1½–½. The two players sharing first place after the regular games play two Blitz games and then possibly also an Armageddon game to decide a sole winner.[6]
| Wins | Tournaments Won | |
|---|---|---|
| Magnus Carlsen | 8 (1 shared) | 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022 |
| Viswanathan Anand | 5 (3 shared) | 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006 |
| Max Euwe | 4 (1 shared) | 1940, 1942, 1952, 1958 |
| Levon Aronian | 4 (2 shared) | 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014 |
| Viktor Korchnoi | 4 (2 shared) | 1968, 1971, 1984, 1987 |
| Lajos Portisch | 4 (1 shared) | 1965, 1972, 1975, 1978 |
| Jan Hein Donner | 3 (1 shared) | 1950, 1958, 1963 |
| Efim Geller | 3 (3 shared) | 1965, 1969, 1977 |
| Garry Kasparov | 3 | 1999, 2000, 2001 |
| John Nunn | 3 (1 shared) | 1982, 1990, 1991 |
| Walter Browne | 2 (1 shared) | 1974, 1980 |
| Anatoly Karpov | 2 | 1988, 1993 |
| Bent Larsen | 2 (2 shared) | 1960, 1961 |
| Predrag Nikolić | 2 (1 shared) | 1989, 1994 |
| Friðrik Ólafsson | 2 (1 shared) | 1959, 1976 |
| Lev Polugaevsky | 2 | 1966, 1979 |
| Valery Salov | 2 (1 shared) | 1992, 1997 |
| Gennadi Sosonko | 2 (2 shared) | 1977, 1981 |
| Nigel Short | 2 (1 shared) | 1986, 1987 |
| Jan Timman | 2 (1 shared) | 1981, 1985 |
| Veselin Topalov | 2 (2 shared) | 2006, 2007 |
| Theo van Scheltinga | 2 | 1944, 1947 |
See main article: Corus Chess Tournament 2010. Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 8½/13, winning his second title.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011. Hikaru Nakamura finished first with a score of 9/13, winning his first title and his first super-tournament.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012. Levon Aronian finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a third time.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2013. Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 10/13, winning the title for a third time and matching Garry Kasparov's record score for the event, set in 1999.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014. Levon Aronian finished first with a score of 8/13, winning the title for a fourth time.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015. Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a fourth time.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2016. Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a record-equalling fifth time.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2017. Wesley So defeated defending champion Magnus Carlsen by one point, with a score of 9/13.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2018. Magnus Carlsen won for a record sixth time, defeating Anish Giri on tiebreak after both finished with a score of 9/13.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2019. Magnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9/13.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2020. Fabiano Caruana was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 10/13.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021. Jorden van Foreest was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 8½/13. He defeated Anish Giri in an Armageddon playoff.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022. Magnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9½/13.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023. Anish Giri won the 85th edition Tata Steel Chess 2023 finishing the tournament with 8½ out of 13 points. He defeated the world's top two ranked players (Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren) in the process.
See main article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024. Wei Yi was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 8½/13. He was tied with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh D, and Anish Giri, but won against Abdusattorov and then Gukesh (who had defeated Giri) in the blitz single-elimination tiebreak.
Notes
Bibliography