Tata Steel 2016 is one of the strongest tournaments in all 2016. The Masters bracket of the tournament features 14 of the most renowned chess players today. Each day before the tournament, Chessdom brings you a pre-tournament summary for one of the 14 participating Grandmasters:
Magnus Carlsen / Fabiano Caruana / Anish Giri / Liren Ding / Wesley So / Sergey Karjakin / Pavel Eljanov / Shakhryar Mamedyarov / Evgeny Tomashevsky / Michael Adams / David Navara / Yi Wei / Yifan Hou / Loek van Wely
So far we have seen the profiles of Magnus Carlsen andWei Yi, it is time for the local hero. Anish Giri has participated in quite a few events last year. Most recently, he brought the London Chess Classics to a three-way tie, together with Vachier-Lagrave and Carlsen, two of his opponents in Tata Steel 2016. In addition to that, he remained unbeaten throughout the whole competition showing a ever growing understanding of the game.
Earlier in 2015, Giri had a solid performance in the 8th Bilbao Masters, where he tied for first. Good showing at the World Cup Qualification coupled with his previous performances have given him a solid end of year rating boost, bringing him to the closest spot to the magical 2800 barrier at 2798 points and third behind only Carlsen and Kramnik.
Is it time for Giri to take a major chess tournament title? What better place to do it than at home in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. In the previous two Tata Steel tournaments Anish Giri has placed second, so that would be the most logical of steps for the young talent.
Tournaments (5) | Final |
Tata Steel Chess 2011 | 7 |
Tata Steel Chess 2012 | 13 |
Tata Steel Chess 2013 | 8 |
Tata Steel Chess 2014 | 2 |
Tata Steel Chess 2015 | 2 |
I have my eyes on Giri and Caruana as future World Champions. Remember Giri has a good record against Carlsen.
Looking forward to the first ever game Carlsen – Wei Yi.
While Carlsen remains the obvious tip to win, Giri has a great chance. Caruana appears to have gone off the boil and has become too cautious. His fantastic performance at the 2014 Sinquefield looks even more incredible in the light of his later results. Sorry that Vachier is absent.