Tata Steel Chess Tournament
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The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.[1] 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 renamed the Corus Chess Tournament. Corus Group was taken over by the Tata Group and became Tata Steel Europe in 2007,[2] with the tournament changing to its current name in 2011. It has also been referred to as "Wijk aan Zee" since the venue change from the town of Beverwijk to the town of Wijk aan Zee in 1968. Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings; for example, the 2025 event was referred to as the 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament.[3][4]
Top grandmasters compete in the tournament, but regular club players are welcome to play in the lower groups.[1] The Masters group pits fourteen of the world's best players against each other in a round-robin tournament, and has sometimes been described as the "Wimbledon of Chess".[5][6] Since 1938, there has been a long list of very strong winners; of the fifteen undisputed World Chess Champions since the first tournament in 1938, only five – Alexander Alekhine, Vasily Smyslov, Bobby Fischer, Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju – have not won it. In 2001, nine of the top ten players in the world participated.[1]
Magnus Carlsen holds the record for most wins at the tournament, with eight. Viswanathan Anand is the only other player to have won the event five or more times, with five titles to his name. R Praggnanandhaa is the defending champion after defeating Gukesh in the tiebreaks in 2025.
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 to clinch the title.[6] As of the 2025 edition, if two or more players lead with the same score at the end of the round-robin, they all take part in the tiebreaks to determine the sole winner. The time control of the tiebreaks is blitz, and then sudden death.Template:Efn[7]
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Tournament history
Hoogovens Beverwijk
The early tournaments were very small, starting with groups of four in 1938, and entry restricted to Dutch players. The first four tournaments continued this way, until 1942, when it was expanded to six players, and in 1943 to eight players. No tournament was held in 1945 due to World War II.Template:Explain The first international tournament was held in 1946, with the field expanded to ten, and invitations to Alberic O'Kelly de Galway (Belgium) and Gösta Stoltz (Sweden) along with a Dutch contingent of eight.[1]
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.[8]
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Normal people have to see Naples before they die..., but a chess grandmaster has to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament first of all.
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The tournament field was increased to twelve in 1953, 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.[9]
As the tournament grew in stature, it began to offer lower groups such as a B-group (sometimes called "Challengers" in contrast to group-A or "Masters"), and occasionally a C-group. There also began a tradition to operate a year on year policy of inviting the winner of the B-group to the A-group.[1][10]
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The winners of the top group were:[10][11]
Template:Sronly # Year Winner(s) Country Score % 1 1938 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 2½/3 83.3 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 2 1939 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 3/3 100.0 3 1940 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 3/3 100.0 4 1941 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 2½/3 83.3 5 1942 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 4½/5 90.0 6 1943 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 5½/7 78.6 7 1944 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 5/7 71.4 – 1945 No competitionTemplate:Efn 8 1946 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Belgium 7/9 77.8 9 1947 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 7½/9 83.3 10 1948 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 6½/9 72.2 11 1949 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon France 6½/9 72.2 12 1950 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 7/9 77.8 13 1951 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Argentina 6½/9 72.2 14 1952 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 7½/9 83.3 15 1953 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon France 9/11 81.8 16 1954 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 6/9 66.7 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 17 1955 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 6½/9 72.2 18 1956 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Sweden 6½/9 72.2 19 1957 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 6½/9 72.2 20 1958 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 5½/9 61.1 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 21 1959 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Iceland 7½/9 83.3 22 1960 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Denmark 6½/9 72.2 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 23 1961 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Denmark 7½/9 83.3 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 24 1962 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 6/9 66.7 25 1963 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 12/17 70.6 26 1964 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 11½/15 76.6 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 27 1965 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Hungary 10½/15 70.0 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 28 1966 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 11½/15 76.6 29 1967 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 11/15 73.3
Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee
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The tournament was moved to the Dutch seaside town Wijk aan Zee in 1968.[12] Starting from 1982, the tournament mostly settled to its present number of 14 players. The winners of the top group were:[10][11]
Template:Sronly # Year Winner(s) Country Score % 30 1968 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 12/15 80.0 31 1969 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 10½/15 70.0 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 32 1970 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 12/15 80.0 33 1971 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 10/15 66.7 34 1972 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Hungary 10½/15 70.0 35 1973 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 10½/15 70.0 36 1974 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United States 11/15 73.3 37 1975 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Hungary 10½/15 70.0 38 1976 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 7½/11 77.8 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Iceland 39 1977 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 8/11 72.7 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 40 1978 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Hungary 8/11 72.7 41 1979 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 7½/11 68.2 42 1980 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United States 10/13 76.9 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United States 43 1981 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 8/12 66.7 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 44 1982 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United Kingdom 8½/13 65.4 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 45 1983 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Sweden 9/13 69.2 46 1984 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 10/13 76.9 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Switzerland 47 1985 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Netherlands 9/13 69.2 48 1986 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United Kingdom 9½/13 73.1 49 1987 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United Kingdom 9½/13 73.1 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Switzerland 50 1988 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Soviet Union 9/13 69.2 51 1989 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon India 7½/13 57.7 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Hungary Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Hungary Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia 52 1990 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United Kingdom 8/13 61.5 53 1991 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon United Kingdom 8½/13 65.4 54 1992 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Russia 8½/13 65.4 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Belarus 55 1993 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Russia 2½/4Template:Efn 56 1994 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Bosnia and Herzegovina 7/9 77.8 57 1995 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Russia 2½/4Template:Efn 58 1996 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Ukraine 9/13 69.2 59 1997 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Russia 8½/13 65.4 60 1998 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon India 8½/13 65.4 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Russia 61 1999 Script error: No such module "Sort". Template:Flagicon Russia 10/13 76.9
Corus tournament
From 2000, the formal name for the tournament was changed to the "Corus Chess Tournament".[12] The winners of the A-group were:[10][11]
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Tata Steel tournament
From 2011, the formal name changed to the "Tata Steel Chess Tournament".[12] The winners of the Masters section were:[10][11]
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Multiple winners
The following players have won the tournament more than once; years where they shared the title are bolded.
| Player | Country | Wins | Tournaments Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Norway | 8 (1 shared) | 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon India | 5 (3 shared) | 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Netherlands | 4 (1 shared) | 1940, 1942, 1952, 1958 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Armenia | 4 (2 shared) | 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Soviet Union Template:Flagicon Switzerland |
4 (2 shared) | 1968, 1971, 1984, 1987 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Hungary | 4 (1 shared) | 1965, 1972, 1975, 1978 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Netherlands | 3 (1 shared) | 1950, 1958, 1963 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Soviet Union | 3 (3 shared) | 1965, 1969, 1977 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Russia | 3 | 1999, 2000, 2001 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon United Kingdom | 3 (1 shared) | 1982, 1990, 1991 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon United States | 2 (1 shared) | 1974, 1980 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Soviet Union Template:Flagicon Russia |
2 | 1988, 1993 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Denmark | 2 (2 shared) | 1960, 1961 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon SFR Yugoslavia Template:Flagicon Bosnia and Herzegovina |
2 (1 shared) | 1989, 1994 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Iceland | 2 (1 shared) | 1959, 1976 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Soviet Union | 2 | 1966, 1979 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Russia | 2 (1 shared) | 1992, 1997 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Netherlands | 2 (2 shared) | 1977, 1981 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon United Kingdom | 2 (1 shared) | 1986, 1987 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Netherlands | 2 (1 shared) | 1981, 1985 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Bulgaria | 2 (2 shared) | 2006, 2007 |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Template:Flagicon Netherlands | 2 | 1944, 1947 |
See also
Notes
References
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External links
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Template:Tata Steel Chess Tournament Template:Grand Slam Chess Template:Chess tournaments
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Tata Steel Chess Tournament
- Tata Steel Europe
- Invitational chess tournaments
- Chess in the Netherlands
- International sports competitions hosted by the Netherlands
- 1938 establishments in the Netherlands
- Recurring sporting events established in 1938
- Sports competitions in North Holland
- Sport in Beverwijk