The Wijk aan Zee tournament will begin today. I think as the arguably most important tournament of the year it deserves a discussion thread.

Website w/ live transmision is here: http://www.tatasteelchess.com/
The games start at 13:30 CET which should be 07:30 EST.

I am really looking forward to it. It's a pity that Ivanchuk doesn't play, but they have come up with a strong field. I'll be supporting Kramnik and Anand as usual. It will also be nice to see how Vachier can hold his own in a super-tournament.

B and C goups have very good players too. I think Ilya Nyzhnyk might become a surprise. That's one of the nice things about watching Wijk: they have three groups, and out of 21 games there are always a few interesting ones.

I'll be rooting for Grishuk and i'm especially curious how Nepomniachtchi will do, this guy has racked up some impressive results so far.

I think Ivanchuk is not in because he has quite a bad record at wijk, i remember one year he tried to draw all games in under 20 moves.

I'm looking forward to reading some expert analysis of the Ponomariov-Anand game later. Getting your queen trapped as white?

Ivanisevic-Sachdev was the same opening as our current malkovich chess game

that was LOL

I wondered for a while what Pono was doing with his Queen.

Almost seems justice that he gets it trapped making maneuvers like that.

Nice win by Naka with offbeat play (g4 and Kf2!), almost made it look easy to beat Grischuk.

lmao nice!

Now that's how Black is supposed to play that variation!

Im rooting for Naka in this tournament. I dont like his behavior but his chess skills and playing style are awesome. Unlike other top players he doesnt have a team of analysts and he can still beat anyone!

Wow PoRnomariov.. Horrible game!

you sure?

His last name is pretty funny. In russian it means oblivious.

Well Ive heard that he has one helper rated 2100 or something like that. I dont even remember his name. Never heard of any GMs working for Naka.

That's why they're in Group C...

This is why white shouldn't play 4. Nf3.

Wang Hao's game saving move Nd3 was spectacular. Vachier must have felt like getting kicked in the nuts, throwing away a half point like this.

I'm fairly certain Lagrave saw Nd3 and the line played, that's the reason why 31. Be7 wasn't played a move he would have analysed. I think its more likely he assumed he could play 33. Rxd3 with the intention of Qxd3 Ng5, but missed 33...g5!.

From the site: http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/report/round/1

i heard they gave that name to people in the Gulag who didn't want to tell their name.

Guess I was wrong, really didn't expect him to miss that, but I guess these things happen from time to time. Thx for the link.

No doubt!

Easy peezy draw by Naka as Black vs. Aronian!

Carlsen just imploded with White vs. Giri in 22 moves.

Kasparov can Not be pleased with this game's performance.

Meanwhile, Naka with white has a very pleasant position, up a pawn, vs. Shirov in a popular Ruy Lopez line that I always suspected to be at least a little better for White.

Not insulting you or anything, but I thought that Kasparov has parted ways with Carlsen quite a while ago already? I think I read about it somewhere, maybe chessbase.. Is this wrong, is Kasparov still his coach?

Or of course you could have meant that Kasparov would be unhappy because he has worked with Carlsen before, not necessarily because they are still working together, in which case disregard my dumb question

Kramnik seems to be playing some quite aggressive opening lines and just aggressive chess in general in this tournament, interesting to watch preparing for Radja maybe..?

Disregarded with ease.

Holy cow, what a game by Nakamura!

Amazing performance in the win over Shirov. 93 move masterpiece.

you guys may like the the blog of german GM Jan Gustafsson who is in wijk currently to help his friend dutch GM Jan Smeets prepare for the games and reports from the action.

http://www.jan-gustafsson.de/nc/jans-kolumne/

What a mindbending game this is after about 42...Bxd5. I totally have no idea what's going on, ever, until black resigns.

Two decisive games so far today, looks like we're up for some more, Shirov's position is pretty bad.

Watching the ICC broadcast and it's fascinating that the GM commentator, as well as the players, are still working through whether the R v R ending with an extra pawn for Giri vs. Nakamura. Just a few pieces on the board, you'd think this kind of stuff would be easily solved, but of course it isn't.

Agree, interesting ending. Looking at it quickly with my underqualified opinion, I'd think it will end up in a draw but Giri is in as good of a position as he can be for this type of endgame. 4v3 rook endings are notoriously tough to win unless the side with the extra pawn has another advantage as well, either a more active rook or king. In this case both rooks are active but black's king is stuck on the back rank, so white definitely has an advantage. Is it enough to convert to a win? That remains to be seen.

What are the commentators thinking?