2016 Tata Steel Chess Tournament: Preview

Once again the chess year starts off with one of the most interesting events year-round: the 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament, held January 15-31 in Wijk aan Zee, Utrecht and Amsterdam.

This historical event offers great excitement as it pairs the very best players in the world with (slightly) lesser known stars, as well as rising super-talents.

Headlining the field is World Champion Magnus Carlsen, last year's winner of the event. 

Anish Giri. 

Other notable players include Pavel Eljanov, who made huge headlines last year by advancing to the World Cup Semifinals, Russian Champion Evgeny Tomashevsky, who was the ACP wild card for the event, and the top female player in the world, Hou Yifan.

Lastly (but certainly not least), this will be the super-tournament debut of none other than Chinese wunderkind Wei Yi, whose rating rise over the past few years has mirrored that of Magnus Carlsen.

Chess fans should no doubt look forward to see how Wei Yi fares in his biggest challenge to date, especially his first game against the World Champion himself!

In addition to the Masters section the tournament will also feature the Challengers section, which will run concurrently with the main event. The winner of the Challengers will then qualify into next year's Masters event (Wei Yi won quite impressively in 2015).

The participants typically include several locals and other rising talents from around the world, as well as a few experienced legends.

The top seeds are Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Adhiban Baskaran, and Eltaj Safarli, all 2600+ and extremely strong. Representing the youth will be the world's youngest grandmaster, Samuel Sevian, 15, as well as the current youngest Dutch grandmaster, Jorden van Foreest, 16.

Sam Sevian. 

Other qualifiers include Nijat Abasov, who earned his spot by winning the Cultural Village tournament last year. Alexey Dreev, a former world championship candidate, qualified as another ACP wild card.

Several strong female players will also participate, including GM Ju Wenjun, IM Nino Batsiashvili, and WGM Anne Haast. 

The opening ceremony will be held on January 15, and the first round for both sections will take place Saturday, January 16, starting at 4:30 AM PST.

Note that Chess.com will be producing the live broadcast with GM Yasser Seirawan, which will only be available on the tournament website.

For the full schedule of events, please visit here. For more information, as well as photos and videos from previous editions of Tata Steel, visit the tournament's main site.

And look for daily reports here of each round, including photos, games, and quotes from the day's action.