The Tata Steel Chess India 2026 starts tomorrow in Kolkata, India, running from January 7-11. First matches begin at 9:30 UTC. The Open and Women’s tournaments feature a combined $83,000 prize fund. The championship will feature 20 players from 6 countries.

Open tournaments participants:

  • 🇮🇳 Arjun Erigaisi
  • 🇮🇳 Viswanathan Anand
  • 🇮🇳 R Praggnanandhaa
  • 🇮🇳 Vidit Gujrathi
  • 🇮🇳 Nihal Sarin
  • 🇮🇳 Aravindh Chithambaram
  • 🇺🇸 Hans Moke Niemann
  • 🇺🇸 Wesley So
  • 🇨🇳 Wei Yi
  • 🇷🇺 Volodar Murzin

Women’s tournaments participants:

  • 🇮🇳 Divya Deshmukh
  • 🇮🇳 Harika Dronavalli
  • 🇮🇳 Vaishali Rameshbabu
  • 🇮🇳 Vantika Agrawal
  • 🇮🇳 Rakshitta Ravi
  • 🇷🇺 Aleksandra Goryachkina
  • 🇷🇺 Kateryna Lagno
  • 🇺🇸 Carissa Yip
  • 🇬🇪 Nana Dzagnidze
  • 🇬🇷 Stavroula Tsolakidou

Rapid tournaments use a Round-Robin system with a 15+10 time control. The Blitz events have a double Round-Robin system with a 3+2 time control. In case of ties for first place, additional tiebreaks for the Blitz tournaments will be played on January 11.

This championship follows the 2024 edition held in Kolkata. Open titles were won by Magnus Carlsen (both Rapid and Blitz), and Women’s titles were won by Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rapid) and Kateryna Lagno (Blitz).

Credit: Lennart Ootes