Pentala Harikrishna, Poland s no. 2
Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Sweden s no. 1
Nils Grandelius are excellent replacements.
Then, on the eve of the tournament, Daniil Dubov was also forced to cancel after someone close to him tested positive for COVID-19. His late replacement is 22-year-old German Grandmaster
Carlsen has won the Masters group of the event a record 7 times since 2008, when he shared 1st along with Levon Aronian. Caruana is the reigning champion and in fact only three other players (Levon Aronian in 2012 and 2014, Hikaru Nakamura in 2011 and Wesley So in 2017) have managed to win the event in the last 10 years.
Whether Carlsen can triumph again may depend on whether he recovers his form from earlier in 2020. The 30-year-old had an immensely successful year, winning a total of 9 online events and one over-the-board event (Norway Chess), but Wesley So crashed his 30th birthday party by winning the Skilling Open final, while his Airthings Masters came to an end in
€19.95
Top-notch chess in a small fishing village
It was business as usual at the 2020 edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, although things were about to take a dramatic turn for the worse. Now we are entering the second year of the coronavirus crisis, which means the 2021 tournament will be organized on a smaller scale but it will take place nonetheless!
Wijk aan Zee is a small fishing village on the shores of the North Sea which once a year becomes the chess capital of the world, as the best players on the planet gather to fight for tournament victory, surrounded by hundreds of chess fans in the De Moriaan hall. Many chess fans attend the festival, not only because of the top-notch games, but also because it is often cold, wet and stormy outside in winter.
Aronian had a good day against Maxim Vachier-Lagrave
CHENNAI: Russian chess sensation Daniil Dubov came crashing back down to earth on Thursday as he fell behind in the Airthings Masters semifinals. After downing World Champion Magnus Carlsen on Wednesday, Dubov lost the first set in his two-day Champions Chess Tour semi against Azerbaijan s Teimour Radjabov.
The pair got off to a slow start as Radjabov appeared to take a slow and steady approach to grind 24-year-old Dubov down. Two drawn games were followed by a key game 3 which saw Radjabov finally break down Dubov s defence to go 2-1 up. Then, in a final game thriller, Radjabov held firm to score a win and take the set 3-1. He is now one set away from getting through to his first Champions Chess Tour final.
Airthings Masters | chess24
The second event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is also the first Major, with a $200,000 prize fund. The winner gets $60,000 and a guaranteed place in the Grand Final. Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Skilling Open winner Wesley So are among the 12-player field, which will be reduced to 8 players by a 3-day preliminary stage. The remaining players will battle it out in a knockout that takes us into 2021.
January 16 – 31 |
Tata Steel Masters | Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands
This year’s 83rd edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament has been cut to just the main event due to COVID-19, but if everything goes as planned that will still mean a 14-player round-robin featuring Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the world’s Top 5 and a host of young talents that include 17-year-old Alireza Firouzja.
€29.90
Instant grandmaster
As Diana Mihajlova’s thorough profile of Wang Hao (part one is here; part two is here) stated, Hao jumped from untitled to grandmaster “bypassing both the FM and IM titles.” Becoming a grandmaster at age 16 was a high point in Hao’s already impressive junior chess career. For example, at age 14, Hao won team gold and an individual gold as China’s first board in the Under-16 Olympiad.
2019 Grand Swiss
Wang Hao qualified for the 2020 Candidates Tournament by winning the 2019 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss with 8 out of 11, on tiebreak over 2018 World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana and ahead of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who tied for third place with 7.5.