Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2014 off to a flyer

The first round of the 76th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament being held in the De Moriaan Community center at Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands got off to a fiery start with four wins in both the ‘Masters’ as well as the ‘Challenger’ sections.

Just at the start of the tournament, the untimely death of 27-year-old Grand Master Vugar Gashimov from Azerbaijan came as a shock to many chess fans and players. He passed away on the 11th of January 2014 in a German Hospital where he was being treated for a tumour.

The Masters section has some of the best Grand Masters fighting for the crown. Even without the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen and former World Champions Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, the event promises to be a chess fan’s delight.

Indian chess fans will have their eyes glued on Harikrishna’s progress. Only time will tell if he can emulate Anand. He played a solid game that ended in a draw against Levon Aronian, the top rated player of the event.

Round 1 Results:

You can find the live games here, and the history of the tournament here.