The Week in Chess

• Niemann and Abdusattorov lead the Tata Steel Masters with 3/4 - 4

  There were three winners in round four of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Hans Moke Niemann defeated Chithambaram Aravindh with the black pieces, he steadily outplayed his opponent after the inferior 14.f5?! Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated Thai Dai Van Nguyen in a Petroff where he gradually outplayed his opponent, the computer didn't like a couple of moves 33.fxe3 and especially 34.e4 but this didn't seem obvious to the players even after the game. Thus far Matthias Bluebaum had avoided the curse of the Candidates players but two serious mistakes against Javokhir Sindarov 17.Nxa4? (going from edge to equal) and 24.Qc5? (24.Qd7!) which lost to a slightly funky tactic, lost him the game.

  The remaining games were drawn. Summary below. There are two games annotated by Michiel Abeln in the game file, the rest I've annotated using Stockfish.

  Round 4 Standings: 1st= Niemann, Abdusattorov 3pts, 3rd= Sindarov, Van Foreest, Erigaisi 2.5pts 6th= Erdogmus, Gukesh, Fedoseev, Bluebaum...

• Bluebaum and Van Foreest win their first games and join the leaders of Tata Steel on 2/3 - 3

  Five players lead the Tata Steel Chess tournament with a win and two draws after three rounds. Today two new players scored wins to join the leaders, Jorden Van Foreest against a desperately out of form Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum over Vincent Keymer who also has lost his second game of the event. Hans Moke Niemann, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi also have 2/3 after draws today. Praggnanandhaa got off the mark with a draw against Thai Dai Van Nguyen.

  Popular favourite Vasyl Ivanchuk won his first game in the Challengers, but had to navigate playing his 40th move with only one second on the clock. Aydin Suleymanli leads that event with 2.5/3 after Miaoyi Lu lost her perfect score when she lost to Andy Woodward.

  Round 3 Standings: 1st= Niemann, Van Foreest, Erigaisi, Bluebaum, Abdusattorov 2pts, 6th= Erdogmus, Aravindh, Sindarov, Nguyen, Gukesh, Fedoseev 1.5pts, 12th Keymer 1pt, 13th= Praggnanandhaa, Giri 0.5pts.

  Round 4 Pairings Tuesday 20th Jan:...

• Abdusattorov and Fedoseev winners in Tata Steel Round 2 - 2

  There is a three way tie for first place on 1.5 points between Hans Moke Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov after two rounds of the Tata Steel tournament.

  Round 1 leader Niemann drew quickly against Matthias Bluebaum and Erigaisi drew against Thai Dai Van Nguyen but the third winner from round 1, Vincent Keymer, went down to defeat against Vladimir Fedoseev, he in turn must be very relieved to put his mortifying disaster from round 1 behind him. Nodirbek Abdusattorov joined the leaders after defeating Praggnanandhaa who wasn't in good form in the latter half of 2025 and will not be wanting a disaster ahead of the Candidates.

  There were draws in the games Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus vs Chithambaram VR. Aravindh, Gukesh vs Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri vs Javokhir Sindarov (who really should have won).

  My thanks to Michiel Abeln for three annotated games and the photos from round 2.

  In the Challengers 15 year old Women's Grandmaster Lu Miaoyi from...

• First round wins for Niemann, Keymer and Erigaisi following delayed start for the Tata Steel Masters 2026 - 1

  There were three decisive games in the first round of the Tata Steel Masters, there could even have been a couple more. The first story was that the start to the tournament was delayed, climate protesters targeting Tata Steel drew attention to their heavy use of coal and the environmental damage it causes. The start of play was delayed for a couple of hours but perhaps this disruption caused early uncharacteristic blunders from a couple of the players. Hans Moke Niemann was still in theory when Vladimir Fedoseev miscalculated and he had to resign in 16 moves. Anish Giri played the inferior 21...Rb8 then just blundered a piece with 22...Bxd4 and also had to resign immediately. Arjun Erigaisi beat defending champion Praggnanandhaa in 32 moves.

  Javokhir Sindarov hung on to draw a lost position against World Champion Gukesh. Jorden Van Foreest drew a 27 move Petroff against Thai Dai Van Nguyen but it might have been a very different matter if Nguyen had played 21...f5!. Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus drew...

• 88th Tata Steel 2026 - Games and Results

  The 88th Tata Steel Chess tournament takes place in Wijk aan Zee Fri 16th Jan to Sun 1st Feb 2026. Players: Masters: Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, Aravindh Chithambaram, Hans Niemann, Vincent Keymer, Javokhir Sindarov, Jorden van Foreest, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Van Nguyen Thai Dai, Gukesh Dommaraju, Anish Giri, Vladimir Fedoseev, Matthias Bluebaum and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

  Challengers: Vasyl Ivanchuk, Marc Andria Maurizzi, Velimir Ivic, Erwin l'Ami, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Eline Roebers, Miaoyi Lu, Max Warmerdam, Panesar Vedant, Andy Woodward, Aydin Suleymanli, Faustino Oro, Daniil Yuffa and Carissa Yip.

• Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz 2026 - Games and Results

  The Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz took place Wed 7th Jan to Mon 12th Jan 2026.

  Players: Viswanathan Anand, Wei Yi, Chithambaram Aravindh, Arjun Erigaisi, Hans Moke Niemann, Volodar Murzin, Gujrathi Vidit Santosh, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Wesley So,

  Women: Ravi Rakshitta, Carissa Yip, Deshmukh Divya, Nana Dzagnidze, Agrawal Vantika, Rameshbabu Vaishali, Kateryna Lagno, Harika Dronavalli, Stavroula Tsolakidou, Aleksandra Goryachkina.

  The Rapid was won by Nihal Sarin with 6.5/9, half a point clear of Viswanathan Anand, the women's rapid was won by Kateryna Lagno with 6.5/9 a point and a half clear of Aleksandra Goryachkina. The Blitz was won by Wesley So with 12/18 a point clear of Nihal Sarin and Arjun Erigaisi. The women's event was won by Carissa Yip after winning the first game of a two game tie-break against Agrawal Vantika, they had tied on 10.5/18 half a point clear of Stavroula Tsolakidou.

• World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2025 - Games and Results

  The World Rapid and Blitz Championships took place Fri 26th Dec to Tue 30th Dec 2025 in Doha, Qatar.

  Players: Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladislav Artemiev, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, Jan Krzysztof Duda, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Javokhir Sindarov, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Richard Rapport, Wesley So, D Gukesh, Daniil Dubov, Anish Giri, Yangyi Yu, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Andreikin, Parham Maghsoodloo, Jaime Santos Latasa, Sarin Nihal, Praggnanandhaa, Teimour Radjabov, Sam Sevian, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Ray Robson, Andrey Esipenko etc

  Women Players: Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Tingjie Lei, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli, Zhu Jiner, Nana Dzagnidze, Mariya Muzychuk, Deshmukh Divya, Anna Muzychuk, Meruert Kamalidenova, Eline Roebers, Irina Bulmaga, Antoaneta Stefanova, Yuxin Song, Bella Khotenashvili etc

  Magnus...