The Tata Steel Chess 2026 starts tomorrow in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, running from January 17 to February 1. First matches begin at 1:00 PM UTC. The Masters and Challengers tournaments combined will feature 28 players from 16 countries.

Masters tournament participants:

• Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus
• Aravindh Chithambaram
• Hans Moke Niemann
• Vincent Keymer
• Javokhir Sindarov
• Jorden van Foreest
• Arjun Erigaisi
• R Praggnanandhaa
• Thai Dai Van Nguyen
• Gukesh D
• Anish Giri
• Vladimir Fedoseev
• Matthias Bluebaum
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Challengers tournament participants:

• Vasyl Ivanchuk
• Marc’Andria Maurizzi
• Velimir Ivic
• Erwin L’ami
• Bibisara Assaubayeva
• Eline Roebers
• Lu Miaoyi
• Max Warmerdam
• Panesar Vedant
• Andy Woodward
• Aydin Suleymanli
• Faustino Oro
• Daniil Yuffa
• Carissa Yip

The event features a 100+0 time control for the first 40 moves and 50+30 for the rest of the game over one Round-Robin between 14 players. In case of ties for first place, winner will be determined by Tiebreaks.

This championship follows the 2025 edition held in Wijk aan Zee. Masters title was won by R Praggnanandhaa and Challengers title was won by Thai Dai Van Nguyen. Tata Steel Chess is one of the most prestigious and recognizable chess tournaments, held from 1938 to the present day.

Credit: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess