Tata Steel Chess Tournament

Playing hall of the 80th Tata Steel Tournament, 2018

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 fourteen undisputed 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).

Tournament history

Hoogovens Beverwijk

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 (Golombek 1977, p. 143).

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 (Damsky & Sugden 2005, p. 164).

Winners of the top group:^[5]

#	Year	Winner(s)
1	1938	Jilling Van Dijk (Netherlands) Philip Bakker (Netherlands)
2	1939	Nicolaas Cortlever (Netherlands)
3	1940	Max Euwe (Netherlands)
4	1941	Arthur Wijnans (Netherlands)
5	1942	Max Euwe (Netherlands)
6	1943	Arnold van den Hoek (Netherlands)
7	1944	Theo van Scheltinga (Netherlands)
–	1945	No competition (due to World War II)
8	1946	Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium)
9	1947	Theo van Scheltinga (Netherlands)
10	1948	Lodewijk Prins (Netherlands)
11	1949	Savielly Tartakower (France)
12	1950	Jan Hein Donner (Netherlands)
13	1951	Hermann Pilnik (Argentina)
14	1952	Max Euwe (Netherlands)
15	1953	Nicolas Rossolimo (France)
16	1954	Hans Bouwmeester (Netherlands) Vasja Pirc (Yugoslavia)
17	1955	Borislav Milić (Yugoslavia)
18	1956	Gideon Ståhlberg (Sweden)
19	1957	Aleksandar Matanović (Yugoslavia)
20	1958	Max Euwe (Netherlands) Jan Hein Donner (Netherlands)
21	1959	Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland)
22	1960	Bent Larsen (Denmark) Tigran Petrosian (Soviet Union)
23	1961	Bent Larsen (Denmark) Borislav Ivkov (Yugoslavia)
24	1962	Petar Trifunović (Yugoslavia)
25	1963	Jan Hein Donner (Netherlands)
26	1964	Paul Keres (Soviet Union) Iivo Nei (Soviet Union)
27	1965	Lajos Portisch (Hungary) Efim Geller (Soviet Union)
28	1966	Lev Polugaevsky (Soviet Union)
29	1967	Boris Spassky (Soviet Union)

Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee

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	Viktor Korchnoi (Soviet Union)
31	1969	Mikhail Botvinnik (Soviet Union) Efim Geller (Soviet Union)
32	1970	Mark Taimanov (Soviet Union)
33	1971	Viktor Korchnoi (Soviet Union)
34	1972	Lajos Portisch (Hungary)
35	1973	Mikhail Tal (Soviet Union)
36	1974	Walter Browne (United States)
37	1975	Lajos Portisch (Hungary)
38	1976	Ljubomir Ljubojević (Yugoslavia) Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland)
39	1977	Gennadi Sosonko (Netherlands) Efim Geller (Soviet Union)
40	1978	Lajos Portisch (Hungary)
41	1979	Lev Polugaevsky (Soviet Union)
42	1980	Walter Browne (United States) Yasser Seirawan (United States)
43	1981	Gennadi Sosonko (Netherlands) Jan Timman (Netherlands)
44	1982	John Nunn (United Kingdom) Yuri Balashov (Soviet Union)
45	1983	Ulf Andersson (Sweden)
46	1984	Alexander Beliavsky (Soviet Union) Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland)
47	1985	Jan Timman (Netherlands)
48	1986	Nigel Short (United Kingdom)
49	1987	Nigel Short (United Kingdom) Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland)
50	1988	Anatoly Karpov (Soviet Union)
51	1989	Viswanathan Anand (India) Predrag Nikolić (Yugoslavia) Zoltán Ribli (Hungary) Gyula Sax (Hungary)
52	1990	John Nunn (United Kingdom)
53	1991	John Nunn (United Kingdom)
54	1992	Valery Salov (Russia) Boris Gelfand (Belarus)
55	1993	Anatoly Karpov (Russia)
56	1994	Predrag Nikolić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
57	1995	Alexey Dreev (Russia)
58	1996	Vasyl Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
59	1997	Valery Salov (Russia)
60	1998	Viswanathan Anand (India) Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)
61	1999	Garry Kasparov (Russia)

Corus tournament

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	Garry Kasparov (Russia)
63	2001	Garry Kasparov (Russia)
64	2002	Evgeny Bareev (Russia)
65	2003	Viswanathan Anand (India)
66	2004	Viswanathan Anand (India)
67	2005	Peter Leko (Hungary)
68	2006	Viswanathan Anand (India) Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)
69	2007	Levon Aronian (Armenia) Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
70	2008	Levon Aronian (Armenia) Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
71	2009	Sergey Karjakin (Russia)
72	2010	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)

Tata Steel tournament

From 2011, the popular name for the tournament was changed from 'Corus' to 'Tata Steel'.

#	Year	Winner(s)
73	2011	Hikaru Nakamura (United States)
74	2012	Levon Aronian (Armenia)
75	2013	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
76	2014	Levon Aronian (Armenia)
77	2015	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
78	2016	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
79	2017	Wesley So (United States)
80	2018	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
81	2019	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
82	2020	Fabiano Caruana (United States)
83	2021	Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands)
84	2022	Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
85	2023	Anish Giri (Netherlands)
86	2024	Wei Yi (China)
87	2025

Multiple winners

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]

Winners
Player	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

Summary by year

2010s

2010

Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 8½/13, winning his second title.

2011

Hikaru Nakamura finished first with a score of 9/13, winning his first title and his first super-tournament.

2012

Levon Aronian finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a third time.

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.

2014

Levon Aronian finished first with a score of 8/13, winning the title for a fourth time.

2015

Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a fourth time.

2016

Magnus Carlsen finished first with a score of 9/13, winning the title for a record-equalling fifth time.

2017

Wesley So defeated defending champion Magnus Carlsen by one point, with a score of 9/13.

2018

Magnus Carlsen won for a record sixth time, defeating Anish Giri on tiebreak after both finished with a score of 9/13.

2019

Magnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9/13.

2020s

2020

Fabiano Caruana was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 10/13, matching the records of Kasparov and Carlsen in 1999 and 2013 respectively.

2021

Jorden van Foreest was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 8½/13. He defeated Anish Giri in an Armageddon playoff.

2022

Magnus Carlsen was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 9½/13.

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.

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.

2025

The 87th edition is scheduled to be held from 17 January to 2 February 2025.

References

Notes

^ "Anand leads at Tata Steel Chess". IndiaVoice. 25 January 2011. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
^ "Participants Tata Tournament announced". ChessVibes. 21 October 2010. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010.
^ Barden, Leonard (12 January 2018). "Magnus Carlsen aims for strong showing at 'Wimbledon of chess' event". The Guardian.
^ "Magnus Carlsen wins Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2018". FIDE. 29 January 2018. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2018. the Tata Steel Chess, often called as "Wimbledon of Chess", celebrated its 80th anniversary
^ "All-time Tournaments – Tata Steel Chess".
^ "Tournament – Tata Steel Chess Tournament".

Bibliography

Damsky, Yakov; Sugden, John (2005), The Batsford Book of Chess Records, Batsford, p. 164, ISBN 0-7134-8946-4
Golombek, Harry (1977), "Hoogoven Chess Tournament", Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Batsford, p. 143, ISBN 0-517-53146-1

Kings, Queens & Rookies. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament. A Celebration of 85 Years.. Ed.: Peter Boel & Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam. Alkmaar, New in Ches, 2023. ISBN 9789493257771

External links

Official website

[India_News-1] "Anand leads at Tata Steel Chess". IndiaVoice. 25 January 2011. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2011.

[2] "Participants Tata Tournament announced". ChessVibes. 21 October 2010. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010.

[3] Barden, Leonard (12 January 2018). "Magnus Carlsen aims for strong showing at 'Wimbledon of chess' event". The Guardian.

[4] "Magnus Carlsen wins Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2018". FIDE. 29 January 2018. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2018. the Tata Steel Chess, often called as "Wimbledon of Chess", celebrated its 80th anniversary

[5] "All-time Tournaments – Tata Steel Chess".

[6] "Tournament – Tata Steel Chess Tournament".

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v t e Tata Steel Chess Tournament
Hoogovens Beverwijk	1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967
Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee	1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Corus	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Tata Steel	2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

v t e Major recurring international chess tournaments
Strong chess tournaments Mini chess tournaments Round-robin chess tournaments
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Other present (Swiss system generally)	Aeroflot Open (since 2002) Australasian Masters (since 1987) Biel Chess Festival (since 1968) Canadian Open (since 1956) Capablanca Memorial (since 1962) Cappelle-la-Grande Open (since 1985) Carlos Torre Repetto Memorial (since 1987) Chigorin Memorial (since 1909) Doeberl Cup (since 1963) Dubai Open (since 1999) Gibraltar Chess Festival (since 2003) Hastings International Chess Congress (since 1920) Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament (since 1995) Lublin Grandmaster Tournament (since 2009) Paul Keres Memorials (Tallinn, since 1969) (Vancouver, since 1975) Prague Chess Festival (since 2019) Qatar Masters Open (2014–2015, since 2023) Reykjavik Open (since 1964) Riga Technical University Open (since 2011) Rilton Cup (since 1971) Rubinstein Memorial (since 1963) South African Open (since 1962) U.S. Open (since 1900) TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament (since 1993) Vidmar Memorial (since 1969) World Open (since 1973) Xtracon Chess Open (since 1979) Zurich Christmas Open (since 1977)
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