Tata Steel 17 Jan - 2 Feb 2025
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 10:13 am
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Line ups
Line ups
Chess enthusiasts will be able to enjoy themselves again from 17 January to 2 February 2025 in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. The field of participants of the 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament, with no less than five players from the world’s top ten, is again extremely well filled this year.
Caruana Tops Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 Lineup; Oro (11) Plays ChallengersTournament director Jeroen van den Berg is pleased with the field of participants:
“I always strive for a balance between the well-known top players and promising talents. The Masters will feature Grandmasters who can still be regarded as talents in terms of age, but in terms of performance they have been outstanding for so long that they have actually already outgrown that status. I am referring especially to Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov and indeed Gukesh. I am proud of them when I see how, partly due to their previous participations in our tournament, they are now structurally among the world’s top players. In addition, my aim is to select as many players as possible with a strong mentality and willing to fight for the win. I think we can expect an interesting tournament on that front too.”
The field for the 2025 Challengers, from which the winner will qualify for the 2026 Masters, is once again a nice mixture of different ages, genders, and backgrounds. Although he's only the 13th seed, 11-year-old Oro is a name to keep an eye on as one of the biggest talents in chess these days. Two more quite young participants are 14-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi (China) and 16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel (Turkey).
On paper, the favorites for tournament victory are the three top 100 players: GMs Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Czech Republic), Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan), and Frederik Svane (Germany). The two reigning world junior champions will be playing, too: GM Kazybek Nogerbek (Kazakhstan) and IM Divya Deshmukh (India).