Wijk Aan Zee starts on this Saturday, January 12, and runs through Sunday, January 27th. I can't wait for this thing to start. Here's the participant list below. It looks to be a heck of a tournament, with 6 of the world's top 10 participating.

Carlsen
Aronian
Caruana
Karjakin
Anand
Nakamura
Wang
Leko
Giri
Harikrishna
Van Wely
Sokolov
L'Ami
Hou (women's world champion)

The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes to a finish with a 30 seconds increment starting from the first move. It should allow for some really high quality chess.

Here's the official website.

http://www.tatasteelchess.com/

Is it silly to put money on anyone other than Carlsen right now?

No odds available online He has to be a huge favorite though. Will the bottom four win a single game against rest of the field?

FYP

Former? Didn't know that, gracias Who's the women's WC now?

I thought the same thing. I know countries like to invite some of their own (like Vallejo always playing in Linares), but isn't it also somewhat embarrassing to see the countrymen get destroyed? In San Antonio 1972, the organizers invited Ken Smith, the Texas state champion, to play against the likes of Petrosian, Karpov, Portisch, Gligoric, Keres, etc, and Smith scored 2/15. Only 0.5 out of that 15 was scored against anyone good (Keres), the rest came against fellow USA guys Walter Browne and Julio Kaplan.

Anna Ushenina from Ukraine. Last women's world chess championship had a ridic amount of upsets, I think Hou, Koneru and Muzychuk all last in like round 2 or something.

Ushenina - Hou will play a match for the WC title some time in 2013, because Hou won the Women Grand Prix and became a challenger again.

Gotcha, thanks.

Don't lie, you followed the women's tournament so closely because of Sachdev. Admit it

wtf how did this year pass that goddamn fast?!

re: dutch players...dunno, after some rough years at first van Wely hasn't done badly over the last years, scoring close to 50% at least once i remember.

I looked it up, van Wely scored -2 in 2012, -3 in 2010, -1 in 2009, -3 in 2008 and 2007, -1 in 2006, +-0 in 2005 and 2004 and +1 in 2003. That's pretty good i'd say.

I agree that the rest of the dutch had a pretty rough time mostly, and who wants to see Tiviakov anyway, probably not even the dutch...Sokolov at least plays interesting chess but i wouldn't bet on him doing well against 2700 opposition, no idea about L'Ami.

i'd bet on it at even money with Nakamura, Giri and Harikrishna in the "to beat" group. Interesting question if this bet gets worse or better when including more players in the "bottom" range. Probably worse.

I have a feeling Caruana and Anand will be there at the end. I just think Anand will have sort of a rejuvenation this year. Let's not forget either that Giri is from Netherlands and he actually is a dangerous player in this tournament. Him and Van Wely should be able to win outside the bottom half; I only pray for the others.

You're right, that's not too bad at all. Although someone discouraging that he's scoring -5 in the past two appearances. Hopefully something changes for him this year, he's a nice guy.

With Carlsen's form right now and relatively weak bottom end, I could really see him going + 9 or 10 if he draws 3 of 4 whites vs. Anand, Nakamura, Karjakin, and Carauna.

I agree it is completely silly to put money on anyone other than Carlsen right now. This has the feel of Federer in the mid 2000's in any non-clay major before Nadal finally caught up to him. I think Kramnik is the only player that would have an outside shot against him in a match right now, and he'd probably have to play for the breaker. I'd like to think Carlsen finishes at least a full point ahead of the rest of the field.

no way Carlsen goes +9 there, it's not like he's beating van Wely et al. with black every time (especially if he doesn't have to) and his last tournaments were probably over expectation even with his standard. I'd say the winner will go +4 or +5.

I am guessing Carlsen goes plus 7 here. His expected score is already plus 5. Probable results ala me: 1. Carlsen 2. Caruana 3-5.Wang Hao, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura

If Carlsen goes +5, will his rating fall?

9/13 vs this field who's average rating (without him included) is 2722 would be a 2863 performance rating roughly. So no it wouldn't fall and 9/13 is actually closest to his 'expected' result. 8.5/13 and it would fall.

Caruana had an amazing 2012. In the 2012 Tata Steel, he scored 8/13 along with Carlsen. He lost 1st place on rapid tiebreaks (?) to Carlsen in the 2012 Bilbao Masters. Of course, he has a negative record against Carlsen, and doesn't have the highest rating ever, and he is starting off with black against Carlsen.

I predict that will be an exciting game, and if Carlsen doesn't win it, I think Caruana will challenge him for this tournament title.

lololol that is great

LO freaken L

we need more like him !!

Thinking of starting a Yifan club

lol @ Carlsen playing the Ponziani, although it seems to have transposed to something else after some more moves.

Anand is really going for it, could be an instant classic if he wins this

I sure wish I had pulled a trigger on a 17:1 bet for Anand to win this tournament..

at that point it seemed to me that he had as much chance as, say, Van Wely, so I didn't