The much-anticipated Tata Steel Masters kicked off on Saturday in Wijk aan Zee. A lively first round saw four players scoring full points, all with the black pieces Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri and Wei Yi are sharing the lead after the first day of action. The Challengers also saw four players grabbing wins right off the bat. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lenart Ootes
Magnus Carlsen is missing from this year's Tata Steel Chess, but World Champion Ding Liren has returned from his sabbatical. Otherwise, the Masters and Challengers are once again very colourful, with superstars, women and young talented players. The tournament starts in a week's time. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess
Following months of absence after winning his first world title in April 2023, World Champion Ding Liren (China) will make his return to global chess in January at the 86th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He is one of the big names in the total field of participants, which consists of fourteen Masters and fourteen Challengers. The Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun (also from China) and Junior World Champion Marc'Andria Maurizzi (France) are also present. Naturally, Anish Giri defends his title. | Photos: Juriaan Hoefsmit
As expected, hard-fought, exciting games were the norm on the opening day at the Grand Swiss tournaments on the Isle of Man. In the open, 32 players started with wins, including top seed Fabiano Caruana, Richard Rapport (pictured) and Levon Aronian. In the women’s event, meanwhile, 15 participants scored full points, with none of the top three seeds getting more than a draw. | Photo: Anna Shtourman
When it comes to internal politics, our noble game is anything but ‘noble’. Nasty games can be played within federations for personal gain and power at immense expense to chess players. Disagreements and anomalies have affected the work of some federations at various degrees, but it seems that no one has suffered as much or as long as chess in Morocco. Diana Mihajlova reports.