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The chess tradition in this Dutch fishing village dates back to 1938. Originally, the chess tournament was organised for the employees of the nearby steelworks. It soon became a tournament of national and then international importance, as the steelworks in Ijmuiden changed hands several times. Hoogovens became Corus and now the plant belongs to the Indian Tata Steel group. The Indians have continued the chess tradition and it is very fitting that there is an incredible chess boom in India with Anand and many young chess stars.

Almost all the world champions have played here. Anand was the record winner for a long time until he was replaced by Magnus Carlsen. The organisers around Jeroen van den Berg have a good hand in the composition of the tournaments. The championship tournaments are embedded in a large number of amateur openings. The amateurs play in the same hall as the top international stars and also form the audience. This adds to the fascination of Wijk aan Zee.

For many years, the organisers in Wijk aan Zee were even able to run three round-robin tournaments, each with 14 participants in the best times. Now there are only two tournaments, a Masters and a Challengers. Anyone who wins a tournament below the Masters can move up a division the following year. This is how Alexander Donchenko slipped into the Masters 2024 after winning the Challengers last year.

The other players are invited, and once again Jeroen van den Berg's team will ensure a special mix. Some of the absolute top players will be playing, the Dutch top players, but also up-and-coming talents.

This year Magnus Carlsen, who is usually a regular guest, is missing. The Freestyle Chess Tournament in Weissenhaus on the Baltic Sea could play a role. It starts on 9 February, shortly after the end of the Tata Steel tournament. But perhaps Carlsen has little interest in classical tournaments and prefers to play online with short thinking times.

Instead, Ding Liren is back at the chessboard. The reigning World Champion made himself scarce after winning the title. Now he leads the field. Ding is also one of the participants in the Weissenhaus tournament. But he is also well rested.

Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja, ranked fifth and sixth in the world respectively, will also be playing. Anish Giri, Jorden van Foreest and Max Warmerdam will represent the host nation. Praggnandhaa, Vidit and Gukesh will represent the motherland of chess.

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Parham Maghsoodloo, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Wei Yi represent the Asian continent. In recent years there have been very few Chinese men in the top tournaments, why? Reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun will be the only woman in the Masters field.

Five players, who start in Wijk, will also be competing in the Candidates Tournament in April: Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja, Praggnandhaa, Vidit and Gukesh.

German chess fans will miss Vincent Keymer. It's hard to imagine that the Dutch chess fans didn't try to get him to participate, even though Keymer's debut at the Masters last year was a very poor one. However, according to rating Praggnanandhaa and Keymer are currently the world's best juniors.

But maybe Keymer does not play because the opening weekend of Wijk clashes with the German Bundesliga. At any rate, Keymer will face Carlsen in the Weissenhaus Chess960 tournament in February.

The field for the Challenger is once again a colourful mix of old hands, young international talent, local players and women.

The old hands include Erwin L'Ami and Anton Korobov. Mustafa Yilmaz, Saleh Salem and Jaime Santos are slightly younger, more experienced players. Hans Niemann (USA), Marc'Andria Maurizzi (France), Daniel Dardha (Belgium), Leon Mendonca (India) and Liam Vrolijk (Netherlands) are the young guns. Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh (India) and Eline Roebers (Netherlands) represent the female gender. Stefan Beukema will ensure an even stronger Dutch presence.

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It will be interesting to see whether Hans Niemann will give another superhuman performance like he did at the Peace Tournament in Zagreb or whether he will play rather inconspicuously like he did afterwards at the London Chess Classic.

The Masters and Challengers start on Saturday 13 January. There is a day off on 17 and 25 January. Rounds always start at 14:00 local time, on the last day at 12:00 local time.

The 9th round of the Masters on 23 January will be played at another prominent venue in the Netherlands.

Anish Giri will tell you where:

Schedule and program

Tournament page

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Coming soon: The Tata Steel Tournament 2024 in Wijk aan Zee - ChessBase

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Chinese chess player sues to reclaim the title he lost for defecating in a hotel bathtub - Lufkin Daily News

Tuan Minh Le Wins Bullet Brawl Chess Tournament Amid Top Grandmasters

Grandmaster Tuan Minh Le marked the beginning of 2024 with a stunning victory in the Bullet Brawl chess tournament, standing out among a group of widely recognized chess grandmasters. The tournament saw participation from eminent players such as Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Teimour Radjabov. Le concluded the tournament with an impressive score of 193 points, winning a cash prize of $400.

The Bullet Brawl, a weekly event hosted by Chess.com, is a fast-paced 1+0 time control tournament lasting for two hours. The event offers a total prize fund of $1,000 and attracts top players from around the world. Les exceptional performance against other super grandmasters was a highlight of the tournament. His endgame strategy against French GM Vachier-Lagrave and his games with Giri left spectators and fellow competitors in awe. Despite not directly overcoming Nakamura and Naroditsky, Les consistent strength led him to his commendable victory.

International Master Polina Shuvalova, with 94 points, secured the top female player award. At the same time, Cesar Talledo Lagos managed to claim his third consecutive community brawl victory. The event also witnessed remarkable games like the face-off between young chess prodigies FM Faustino Oro and FM Tani Adewumi. The game ended in a draw after a nail-biting 66-move match.

Les success in this edition of Bullet Brawl, considered one of the strongest to date, promises a bright future for his upcoming tournaments, including the Bullet Chess Championship where he aims to improve on his previous 11th place. Les strategic prowess and endgame technique, demonstrated in his matches against the likes of Vachier-Lagrave and Giri, hint at a promising future in the world of competitive chess.

See the article here:
Tuan Minh Le Wins Bullet Brawl Chess Tournament Amid Top Grandmasters - BNN Breaking

At the end of 2023, some top players made great efforts to secure their ticket to the Candidates Tournament, either through the FIDE circuit or by rating. In India and France, tournaments were organised at short notice to give players from these countries a chance to qualify at the last minute.

Gukesh made the most of this opportunity - he won the Chennai Grandmasters and qualified via the FIDE circuit. In France, Alireza Firouzja qualified by winning the Rouen Open with 7 out of 7. The first prize in this Open was 500 euros, but he also gained the necessary rating points to overtake Wesley So in the FIDE rankings from 1 January. Firouzja is now the player with the highest Elo who has not yet qualified for the Candidates and who wants to play. Magnus Carlsen, the world number one and winner of the 2023 World Cup, is no longer interested in the classical World Championship and does not want to start in the Candidates.

During the World Cup in Baku the Norwegian said:

"I think everyone should assume that I won't be playing in the Candidates and that everyone else who is in the semi-finals will qualify for the Candidates."

The nation with the most participants in the two candidate tournaments is India. This also documents India's emergence as one of the leading chess nations. In the country ranking, which is based on the Elo rating of the ten best players in the country, the USA is in first place, but India has been in second place for some months now, ahead of Russia, once the biggest chess nation.

The participation of Praggnanandhaa and Vidit after their successes at the World Cup and the Grand Swiss has already been widely celebrated in India. Now Gukesh is the third Indian player in the Candidates Tournament, while R. Vasihali, Praggnanandhaa's elder sister, and Humpy Koneru will be representing India in the women's event.

Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana are playing for the USA in the Candidates. At the 2018 World Championship Caruana held Carlsen to 6-6 in the classical games, losing only in the rapid tiebreak, and at that time Caruana was also very close to the World Champion in the rating list. After the match, Caruana suffered a few setbacks that cost him a lot of Elo, but he is now the world number two again. 2023 was a very successful year for Caruana, who qualified for the Candidates Tournament by rating, by finishing third in the World Cup and by winning the FIDE Circuit. But it is the result in the World Cup that counts.

Russia is still represented by Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won the last two Candidates Tournaments.

The players who qualified for the Candidates:

*Magnus Carlsen is expected to withdraw from the Candidates Tournament. He has already made statements to this effect in interviews. In this case, Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan, Elo 2641, world rank 102) will move up to fourth place in the 2023 World Championship. If any other qualifiers withdraw, players from the world rankings will move up.

The women's qualifying race was a little quieter and finished earlier. Lei Tingjie, the runner-up at the last Women's World Championship, and Tan Zhongyi, the former Women's World Champion, will play for China. India will be represented by Vaishali and Humpy Koneru and Russia by Ekaterina Lagno and Alexandra Goryachkina. They will be joined by Ukraine's Anna Muzychuk and Bulgaria's Nurgyul Salimova, who like Vaishali is a newcomer to the Candidates. Six of the eight players are close together in the rankings. Vaishali and Salimova are slightly behind, but both are on the rise and always good for a surprise.

The players who qualified for the Candidates

* Grand Swiss runner-up A. Muzychuk qualified via the World Cup.

The Candidates' Tournament for the absolute World Championship and the Candidates' Tournament for the Women's World Championship will be held at the same time and place this year, from the 2nd to the 25th of April in the Canadian metropolis of Toronto.

The tournament is sponsored by the Canadian Scheinberg family, long-time sponsors of the Isle of Man Open, which has been upgraded by FIDE as the "Grand Swiss" to a qualifying tournament for the Candidates Tournament. FIDE has been able to win over the Scheinberg family for a long-term commitment to chess. The Scheinberg family is providing a prize fund of USD 750,000 for the two Candidates' Tournaments in Toronto.

FIDE reforms the qualification paths to Candidates Tournament

See the article here:
The participants of the Candidates - ChessBase

Heading into 2024, Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes seemed to be likely a course for one of the main event matches at WrestleMania 40, but on Monday, another intriguing possibility emerged. During the Day One edition of "WWE Raw," The Rock teased a feud with Reigns as he asked the San Diego crowd if his dinner plans should entail him sitting in a booth, at a bar, or at the head of the table a clear reference to one of Reigns' nicknames. On a recent episode of "Busted Open Radio," WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray assessed the potential implications that Rock's apparent challenge to Reigns could have on other top stars, such as Rhodes and Randy Orton, as WWE heads into WrestleMania season.

"[The main event landscape] is a very interesting, I say, internal chess match of, 'If we do this, then this. And if we do this, then when do we do this? But if we do it then, will the people lose faith?' [CM] Punk wins the Rumble, chooses Seth [Rollins to face at WrestleMania]. I think that's what the majority of the people want to see. So I think we can take Punk and Seth out of the equation, which leaves us Randy, Roman, possibly Rock, because we don't know if what The Rock says pertains to WrestleMania. He said 'head of the table.' That could happen at Royal Rumble. That could happen at Elimination Chamber. That could happen at WrestleMania. So Cody, Roman, Rock, and Randy, there's your [main] four, and where do they go, when and why."

Should WWE position The Rock vs. Reigns on the WrestleMania 40 card, Ray believes Orton should dethrone Reigns at the Royal Rumble event, forcing the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship to change hands. Per Ray's vision, after Orton unseats "The Tribal Chief" at the Royal Rumble, he would then go on to lose the title to Rhodes at WrestleMania 40, and thus, fulfill Rhodes' quest to "finish the story."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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Bully Ray Assesses 'Internal Chess Match' With WWE Main Event Stars - Wrestling Inc.