Double Dhamaka on Diwali - Two Indians to play at Tata Steel 2018!

by Sagar Shah - 18/10/2017

World champion Magnus Carlsen and former world champions Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Hou Yifan will participate in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2018. Both Carlsen and Anand have won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament five times. They will face grandmasters like Anish Giri, Wesley So (2017 winner), Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Hou Yifan in Wijk aan Zee in January. The 80th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place in Wijk aan Zee from 12 – 28 January 2018. It's after a long time that we will see two Indians in the Masters section - Vishy Anand and Adhiban Baskaran.

The local favourite Anish Giri will be looking for his first Tata Steel victory. Anish is flanked by Theo Henrar, Chairman of Management Board Nederland BV (left) and Jeroen van den Berg, tourament director.

Exciting competition

Jeroen van den Berg, director of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament: “The 80th Tata Steel Chess Tournament looks set to become a beautiful jubilee event. I am particularly pleased that four world champions are participating. The presence of Kramnik and Anand in this jubilee edition is very special, since it has been a few years since they played in Wijk aan Zee. Magnus Carlsen is still the world’s number one player, but his lead has shrunk. The battle for victory can become very exciting. Especially Anish Giri is very keen to win in front of a home audience, thus stepping in the footsteps of Jan Timman, the last Dutchman to win the Tata Steel Chess Tournament (in 1985). Gawain Jones has been promoted from the Tata Steel Challengers, which he won this year.”

For Indians it's a double bonanza as Anand and Adhiban will both play in the Masters section! It will be very interesting to follow the game between these two Indians, who will cross swords with each other for the first time!

The 13th grandmaster will be announced in November and the 14th a month later, when it is known who will be the highest ranked player in the ACP Competition with a rating under 2750 on 1st December. The participants of the Tata Steel Challengers will be announced in November.

Preliminary list of participants Tata Steel Masters 2018

S. No	Name	Country	Elo	World No.
1	Magnus Carlsen	Norway	2826	1
2	Fabiano Caruana	USA	2794	4
3	Vladimir Kramnik	Russia	2794	5
4	Shakhryar Mamedyarov	Azerbaijan	2791	6
5	Wesley So	USA	2788	7
6	Viswanathan Anand	India	2783	9
7	Sergey Karjakin	Russia	2765	12
8	Anish Giri	Netherlands	2762	13
9	Wei Yi	China	2740	18
10	Hou Yifan	China	2678	64
11	Adhiban Baskaran	India	2671	75
12	Gawain Jones	England	2662	83

The 13th player will be announced next month. The 14th player will be a nominee of Association of Chess Professionals (ACP).

Trivia:

There is one more Indian player who will be present at Wijk Aan Zee for the Tata Steel Tournament. Not in the Masters section, but Challengers. Any guesses who that would be? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Diwali discount on ChessBase India:

Don't miss out on the Great Diwali Sale in the ChessBase India Shop taking place from 18th to 20th of October.