Magnus Carlsen versus the young guns at Wijk starts on Saturday, when the opening round (of 13) of the “chess Wimbledon” at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee gets under way at the windswept Dutch village. Carlsen, 32, the triple world champion at classical, rapid and blitz, takes on a grandmaster field which includes five teenagers – three from India, one each from Germany and Uzbekistan – all with dreams of dethroning the Norwegian.
Carlsen’s own top priorities are to win Wijk for a record ninth time, see off the challenge from Generation Z, and hopefully to kickstart another attempt to scale his own elusive chess Everest of a 2900 rating, a target which he has twice missed by fewer than 20 points. A clear victory would confirm his current fine form in speed and online events, and justify his decision to renounce his classical crown along with its associated burden of months of pre-match work.
The youngest of the challenging teenage quintet is Dommaraju Gukesh, 16, who at 12 narrowly missed becoming the youngest ever GM, and in 2022 won the Olympiad top board gold medal, and has beaten Carlsen online.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 17, was a prodigy who was headlined in this column at age 11. The Indian defeated Carlsen five times in internet tournaments during 2022, the only teen with multiple victories against the champion.
Arjun Erigaisi, 19, began 2022 by winning the Wijk Challengers with 10.5/13, so qualifying for this year’s top group. He is the reigning Indian champion and has advanced consistently with hardly a setback. The most eye-catching fact about Erigaisi is that he recently landed what is probably the largest ever sponsorship deal for an individual player. He is being backed for $1.5m, spread over five years, by Singapore-based analytical trading company Quantbox, whose founder believes that the Indian will become world champion.
Vincent Keymer, 18, was tipped for greatness by Garry Kasparov when the German was just 10. Keymer’s progress has accelerated in 2022, culminating in his silver medal behind Carlsen at last month’s World Rapid.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 18, the 2021 World Rapid champion, is a dedicated player who led Uzbekistan to gold at the 2022 Olympiad and whose success has sparked state support for chess. Tashkent is likely to host the 2026 Olympiad.
Two more teens are absent from Wijk, for very different reasons. The US’s Hans Niemann, 19, defeated Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, sparking an ongoing saga of withdrawals, accusations and lawsuits which remain unresolved.
Alireza Firouzja, 19, seemed the heir apparent to Carlsen’s throne, but in 2021 the Iran-born Frenchman had a spat with the Wijk organisers over a final-round incident. Negotiations for the two following years have broken down due to his demands for compensation plus an elevated appearance fee. Firouzja missed many of the major chess occasions in 2022, leading to some outlandish rumours including one that he seeks a career away from chess in fashion design and a contradictory one where he is preparing to meet Carlsen in a breakaway world title match.
Carlsen also has several rivals this weekend from his own generation. Following the Norwegian’s statement renouncing his crown, Ding Liren, China’s world No 2, will meet Ian Nepomniachtchi for the official championship, probably in Mexico City in April. The 2018 world title challenger and current US champion, Fabiano Caruana, has recently got back to near his best following some uneven results, while Wesley So triumphed in the Chess.com Global Classic, a premier online event.
The Dutch pair of Jorden van Foreest, who won Wijk in 2021, and Anish Giri, a perennial contender, cannot be discounted, the oldest player Levon Aronian, 40, will be eager to do well after a disappointing 2022, while Richard Rapport, newly transferred from Hungary to Romania, has had several high placed finishes.
The 14th player is Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo, a late substitute for Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Round one pairings: Van Foreest (Neth) v So (US), Rapport (Rom) v Abdusattorov (Uzb), Caruana (US) v Giri (Neth), Gukesh (Ind) v Ding (Chn), Maghsoodloo (Irn) v Keymer (Ger), Carlsen (Nor) v Aronian (US), Praggnanandhaa (Ind) v Erigaisi (Ind).
Tata Steel Wijk is sure to attract thousands of online spectators. Games start at 1pm, with rest days on 18, 23 and 26 January. Chess24 is a recommended viewing site, with free and live grandmaster and computer running commentaries on all the games.
Chess.com launched its new AI bot, Mittens, a trash talking chess playing kitten, less than two weeks ago. The website says Mittens has already played and won 99% of a huge number of games, mostly through opponents quitting rather than resigning.
Mittens gives a running commentary after each turn, telling opponents where they have gone wrong, offering suggestions for the next few moves, and even allowing up to four takebacks per game. It is based on the chess.com-owned Komodo and some of its few defeats have been by the stronger Stockfish program.
Nigel Short, who has personal experience of playing a super-strong bot, has tweeted that “Magnus is Salieri to Mittens’ Mozart”. Hikaru Nakamura, the popular streamer and five-time US champion, drew against Mittens with some difficulty. Mittens is easy to access. Log on to chess.com, click play computer, and choose Mittens.
3850: 1...Qd3 2 Ne1 Nd2! wins since 3 Nxd3 Rxf1 mate while 3 Qxc7+ Kg6 only delays the end. The best White can do is 3 Qc3+ Qxc3 4 Rxc3 Rxe1 when Black also wins the Bf1 and will be two pieces up.
