Tata Steel (Wijk aan Zee) Starts Today

Gukesh, Caruana, Erigaisi, and Caruana lead a strong field as 2025 kicks off.

The Tata Steel Masters, a.k.a. Wijk aan Zee, kicks off today (Saturday) with a great field, as usual. The new World Champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, is playing, as is world #2 Fabiano Caruana, world #4 Arjun Erigaisi, #6 Nodirbek Abdusattorov, #8 Wei Yi, and so on. Here are the pairings for round 1 of this 14-player round-robin event:

Wei Yi (2755) - Caruana (2803)

Harikrishna (2695) - Erigaisi (2801)

Gukesh (2777) - Giri (2728)

Praggnanandhaa (2741) - Abdusattorov (2766)

Van Foreest (2680) - Fedoseev (2723)

Mendonca (2639) - Keymer (2731)

Warmerdam (2643) - Sarana (2677)

The field is mixed enough that there should be plenty of decisive games, and with most of the higher-rated players already well-known for their fighting spirit we ought to be in for a great event even aside from the chance for the big guys to go after the rabbits.

It will be interesting to see if Gukesh will play like a World Champion, or if the absolute rating favorites will be able to assert themselves against him. (There’s a further question of how well-prepared he’ll be, mentally, after the whirlwind of activity he has engaged in since winning the title.)

Tournament predictions, readers?