Tata Steel Chess Tournament

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 (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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fabiano Caruana was the winner of this tournament, with a score of 10/13.

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

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

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.

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.

• List of strong chess tournaments

Notes

Bibliography

• 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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tata Steel chess tournament.

• Official website