Hello everyone.
Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2026 in Wijk aan Zee is on and 4 rounds are played already. This tournament has long tradition as this is its 88th edition. Many world chess champions and best chess players played here.
Tournament is also known as The Wimbledon of chess.
Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2026 has two sections. One is masters and other section is challengers. Last year winner in Masters section was Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and winner in winner in Challengers section was Thai Dai Van Nguyen.
From January 16th to February 1st 14 players in both Masters and Challengers compete to win it all.
The Tournament has amateur section as well.
Format
It is Round-robin. 14 players paly 13 rounds. 120 minutes in first 40 moves with no increment on moves which is followed by 30 minutes time addition on move 41 and 30 seconds increment per move on move 41.
I managed to tune in these days and watch some parts live or go over video to catch up with some games.
There were some interesting moves and games in these rounds.
I watch the stream of chess24 and broadcast team there are Gm Simon Williams and IM Jovanka Houska which are quite good in my opinion. Also there are spectators in the commentary hall and there is interaction with the commentators and it is nice change. Did not know about this (maybe it is practice here in Wijk aan Zee or it is first time this year). Gm Simon Williams and IM Jovanka Houska ask audience some chess questions, moves in the position of the current games or just which player they think will win the games and they gave out some small stuff for the correct answers. It appeared to me that audience has chess knowledge and this approach is entertaining.
Lets go over Masters group of the Tournament.
14 players and youngest filed ever Masters group with age average of 23 years. Oldest players is Anish Giri.
Current World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju is participating this year.
Challengers group of tournament has some strong names as well. Winner of the Challengers group qualifies for the Master group next year. GM Vasyl Ivanchuk decided to take part in Challengers this year.
Masters group
In Masters section Hans Niemann and Nodirbek Abdusattorov lead the tournament with 3 points each. Then we have Sindarov, Jorden Van Foreest and Ajun Erigaisi following closely with 2.5 points.
It is still early and 9 more rounds to go so these standings are nothing final however it is good to start strong.
Maybe a bit strange to see Anish Giri and Praggnanadhaa with only 1 point each but they can bounce back.
Challengers group
Aydin Suleymanli is leading the group with 3.5 points - three wins and one draw is super start of the tournament. Interesting fact is that Aydin Suleymanli was tied for the first place with Thai Dai Van Nguyen last year but did not qualify for the Masters group. This year may be time for him to enter Masters group. GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi, GM Andy Woodward and IM Faustino Oro are on second place with same number of points (3).
Still so many games to play and see who will win and advance to the Masters group.
Masters group
Today there was nice game between GM Javokhir Sindarov and GM Matthias Bluebaum.
Game was equal. Black was pressing on King side but white had all covered with his pieces and good defense.
It looks scary but rook to h2 covers and stops any attacks.
And then there is a bad move. As you can see evaluation bar shows black is better. It looks better but what is the move. Here the commentators Gm Simon Williams and IM Jovanka Houska asked audience about winning move and there was no correct answers in the beginning. Several of them tried. It was interesting to see that and move was not that much obvious. Suggestions were good but they did not lead to win - in some cases loss and even back to drawn position.
If you want you can try to look for the winning move.
In case you want to think I will go over some moves that audience suggested.
Any take on h3 is met with rook to h2.
Some suggested attack on queen with pawn to b6 in which case you bring queen to g1.
One move was rook to e5 that also does not work. Position is draw again.
Pawn to f5 was one of the moves.
So there was some moves suggested that looked good but not best.
And then someone said that there should be knight move. But to d3. And while they were saying why is that winning move Javokhir Sindarov found that move.
Knight to d3.
Why is it winning move?
Because if you take with bishop you lose your rook on d2. And if you take with rook as Matthias Bluebaum did it gives black Queen chance to set up checkmate and open way for rook to join attack.
Here GM Matthias Bluebaum understood his mistake.
After one more check Javokhir Sindarov moves pawn to g5 opening that h6 file for the rook and the checkmate.
It was nice game with this one move but also that audience was able to look for a move and at the same time it was played by the players.
Game link
https://lichess.org/broadcast/tata-steel-chess-2026--masters/round-4/TU7qC17C/0gJOyyep
Challengers group
Other exciting game was from Challengers group.
Game from Round 3 between GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and GM Velimir Ivic.
This game was not about flashy move rather than a flashy speed. If you follow a bit more chess tournaments you may know that Vasyl Ivanchuk may get into time trouble in some games. Even in some winning positions he may spend to much time and get into time trouble.
So here it was move 39 and Vasyl Ivanchuk was left with only 1 second on the clock. Position is pretty much equal. Next move would reach time control and add 30 minutes to the clock but you have to make it in time.
He was aware that there was one second left and the move should be fast.
Commentators said that any check move would make it harder to take the piece and press clock. Maybe it was way to win on time. If I recall correctly Vasyl Ivanchuk said something familiar in after game interview.
Velimir Ivic played pawn to e7. And Vasyl Ivanchuk with such speed responded with rook to e8. Not only did he reach time control but also he had advantage as you can see in the evaluation bar.
In the end he managed to win.
It was tense to watch it live with those last second moves from both sides.
Good win for Vasyl Ivanchuk.
Game link
https://lichess.org/broadcast/tata-steel-chess-2026--challengers/round-3/DhRfuCAE/KDusq9zb
Tournament that has 9 more rounds to go. Much more chess to be played.
Our Hive chess Tournament is back at right time.