Tata Steel Chess 2011

Corus to be renamed Tata Steel

Note: Updated preview with new ratings of Tata steel here.

The traditional Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee will have a different name starting next year Tata Steel Chess.

This is the second change of name for the event in their 73 editions history. The traditional tournament has been running since 1938 under the name of Hoogovens, and was renamed later in 2000 Corus.

The format of Tata Steel Chess will be preserved. A total of 3 groups will be present (A, B, and C), with some of the top world players in the A group. Each group will preserve the 14 players round robin format. Until now the tournament reveals 3 names - the current number 1 GM Magnus Carlsen, the World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand, and the 5th in the September FIDE rating list GM Vladimir Kramnik. Interesting to note, these players also participate in the Bilbao Final Chess Masters.

The rest of the field will be announced after the end of the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk.

The rumor of the renaming of the tournament has been around for some time, and was first publicly confirmed after a GSCA meeting talk with journalists. The information is confirmed now by official press release at the Corus website, that from next year will be under the domain name tatasteelchess.com.

Update: The 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament will be held from 14th to 30th January 2011 in Wijk aan Zee.

Tata Steel Chess Group A:

GM Magnus Carlsen NOR
GM Viswanathan Anand IND
GM Levon Aronian ARM
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS
GM Alexander Grischuk RUS
GM Ruslan Ponomariov UKR
GM Alexey Shirov ESP
GM Hikaru Nakamura USA
GM Wang Hao CHN (qualifier from the Bosna Open tournament)
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS (reigning European Champion)
GM Anish Giri NED
GM Jan Smeets NED
GM Erwin l'Ami NED

Tata Steel Chess Group B:

GM David Navara CZE
GM Laurent Fressinet FRA
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek POL
GM Le Quang Liem VIE
GM Zahar Efimenko UKR
GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM
GM Wesley So PHI (winner of Corus C 2009)
GM Luke McShane ENG
GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly IND
GM Li Chao CHN
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer NOR
GM Vlad Tkachiev FRA
GM Friso Nijboer NED
GM Wouter Spoelman NED

Tata Steel Chess Group C:

GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev KAZ
GM Ivan Ivanisevic SRB
GM Mark Bluvshtein CAN
GM Daniele Vocaturo ITA
GM Katherina Lahno UKR
IM Ilya Nyzhnyk UKR
IM Benjamin Bok NED
IM Jan Willem de Jong NED
IM Mark van der Werf NED
IM Robin van Kampen NED
GM Sebastian Siebrecht GER
IM Tania Sachdev IND
plus two more qualifiers from the Cultural Village tournament