15 January 2016
Tata Steel Chess Festival Begins in Wijk-aan-Zee
Sergey Karjakin and Evgeny Tomashevsky are representing Russia in the main event.
The Tata Steel Chess festival consists this year of two round robin tournaments played in Wijk-aan-Zee on January 15-31, with brief visits to Amsterdam (round 5) and Utrecht (round 10).
The main event participants: Magnus Carlsen (2844, Norway), Anish Giri (2798, Netherlands), Fabiano Caruana (2787, USA), Wesley So (2773, USA), Sergey Karjakin (2769, Russia), Ding Liren (2766, China), Pavel Eljanov (2760, Ukraine), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2747, Azerbaijan), Michael Adams (2744, England), David Navara (2730, Czech Republic), Evgeny Tomashevsky (2728, Russia), Wei Yi (2706, China), Hou Yifan (2673, China), Loek Van Wely (2640, Netherlands).
Tournament B is joined by Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2679, Germany), Bashkaran Adhiban (2653, India), Eltaj Safarli (2653, Azerbaijan), Alexey Dreev (2644, Russia), Erwin L'Ami (2627, Netherlands), Benjamin Bok (2607, Netherlands), Samuel Sevian (2578, USA), Mikhail Antipov (2567, Russia), Nijat Abasov (2556, Azerbaijan), Ju Wenjun (2548, China), Jorden van Foreest (2541, Netherlands), Nino Batsiashvili (2485, Georgia), Miguoel Admiraal (2441, Netherlands), Anne Haast (2391, Netherlands).
The drawing of lots in the Tournament A took place on January 15.
The playing days: January 16-19, 21-24, 26-27, 29-31. Rest days: January 20, 25, and 28.
All games start at 15:30 msk, except rounds 5 and 10 that start at 16:00, and the last round that starts at 14:00.
