11 Things We Learned — Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is traditionally the first super-tournament of the year. It's often packed with top-level clashes, dramatic storylines, and 11th-hour plot twists, but 2024 will certainly remain one of the most memorable years in its long history.

Even though world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen didn't participate this time, the tournament was full of intrigue. For the first time since the event began in 1938, we saw a Chinese winner. We saw exhilarating blitz tiebreaks to settle a four-way tie for first place, the participation of both reigning classical world champions (GMs Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun), the constantly shifting tides of fortune for tournament leaders and defending champions, and a strong showing from the burgeoning armada of Indian talents—and not just the teenagers!

After presenting the Game of the Tournament and Brilliant Move of the Tournament, we'll jump into 11 conclusions we can draw from Tata Steel Chess 2024. Let's get started!

• Brilliant Move of the Tournament: Nepomniachtchi-Donchenko 28...Rxc2!!
• The Best Game of the Tournament: Wei Yi-Max Warmerdam 1-0
• World Champion Ding Disappoints
• Wei Yi Is Back In Business
• Another Chapter In Abdusattorov Vs. Giri Rivalry
• Anand's Still India's Number-One
• It Can All Fall Apart In The Final Rounds
• Organizers, Keep An Eye On Anish Giri
• Women Players Prove Themselves Against World's Best
• Sexism In Chess Continues
• Fair Play Is Still A Concern Over The Board
• The FIDE Circuit Is Complicated
• Blitz Matters, Even In Classical Tournaments

Brilliant Move of the Tournament: Nepomniachtchi-Donchenko 28...Rxc2!!

It's hard to choose just one, but we managed to do so. With votes from the commentary team, our resident GM Rafael Leitao, and daily report author Peter Doggers, the Brilliant Move of the Tournament goes to GM Alexander Donchenko's 28...Rxc2!! against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi!

Although he didn't win the game in the end, it was a beautiful shot—and, according to our staff voters, the most beautiful shot—that led to a winning position. You can click through the full game here.

Best Game of the Tournament: Wei Yi-Max Warmerdam 1-0

The same voters decided on the best game of the tournament, which rightfully is awarded to the tournament victor Wei Yi. In round 11 against GM Max Warmerdam, he sacrificed his rook in the corner for two dangerous central pawns. You can take a look at this stunning game, annotated by GM Leitao here.

World Champion Ding Disappoints

Let's start with the elephant in the room, the number-one seed and World Champion Ding Liren. This was his second tournament since winning the world championship in May 2023. He finished in eighth place at his previous tournament, also last May, but told Chess.com he felt "much better than before" just prior to this one. Yet he finished in ninth place, scoring just two wins across the 13 rounds.

That being said, we won't wait long to see him back at the board. He'll be playing at the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024, a Chess960 super-tournament that includes Carlsen.

Wei Yi Is Back In Business

Rather than the Chinese number-one, it was the Chinese number-two Wei who deservingly finished at the top of the mountain.

The youngest player in history to reach a 2700 FIDE rating, at age 15, he played what many called the "Game of the 21st Century" in 2015, a sacrificial barrage against GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista. Frankly, we haven't heard much about him in recent years, and this was only his second tournament outside of China since 2020.

Still, the Chinese prodigy, now 24 years old, emerged convincingly on top of a four-way blitz playoff, against the more familiar talents GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, GM Anish Giri, and GM Gukesh Dommaraju. Upon winning, he said: "It's my biggest achievement in my chess career."

Another Chapter In Abdusattorov Vs. Giri Rivalry

Tata Steel Chess 2023 ended with a remarkable turnaround as Abdusattorov lost, while Giri won on demand in the final round to steal the tournament. This year, they added a second chapter to what might become a multi-saga rivalry. 

In round seven, Abdusattorov had his revenge by winning their head-to-head matchup, taking the lead in the two-week marathon entering the final stretch, but it was GM Vidit Gujrathi who spoiled his party in the penultimate round. Both Abdusattorov and Giri won on demand to reach the tiebreaks, though that's as far as they got.

Anand's Still India's Number-One

Boiling underneath the surface is the Candidates Tournament 2024, which will decide the next world championship challenger in late April. Five of the eight candidates were in Wijk aan Zee: GM Ian Nepomniacthchi, GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Vidit, and Gukesh. The final three names on that list are all from India, and they had quite the track record last year:

Gukesh did the best at Tata Steel, reaching the blitz tiebreak final and only losing to Wei in the final game. Only 17 years old, he's the youngest of the three Indian candidates and last year ended Anand's 37-year-reign as India's number-one.

Praggnanandhaa, who finished on 7.5/13, also became India's number-one on the live rating list in this tournament after defeating Ding in round four, though that achievement wouldn't last.

The 29-year-old Vidit, like Wei, proved that, although the chess world loves to talk about child prodigies, one can still achieve greatness later in life. After defeating Abdusattorov on demand, he also became India's number-one player on the live rating list.

However, after he lost the following day, Anand once again reclaimed the throne. Can't checkmate that king after all.

It Can All Fall Apart In The Final Rounds

As we know from individual chess games, it doesn't matter how you win—only that you win. The Challengers Tournament proved the same point, that the leader does not always finish first, but even to a greater degree. It was GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi who led for virtually the entire tournament, scoring an insane 6.5/7 points between rounds five and 11. Ahead of the field by a full point with two rounds to go, he looked sure to win the tournament.

But just like Abdusattorov, he lost in the penultimate round against GM Daniel Dardha, and it was GM Leon Luke Mendonca who surpassed him by half a point in the final round.

Organizers, Keep An Eye On Anish Giri

From one round to another, Giri proved that no pawn, or piece, is safe from his iron clasp, taking the term "pawn grubber" to an entirely literal level. If your chess set is missing a pawn, odds are it's somewhere in the Netherlands by now.

Organizers, if they'd like not to "lose material," should keep a close eye on the Dutch number-one.

Women Players Prove Themselves Against World's Best

Women brought their fighting spirit to Wijk aan Zee and we saw several upsets early in the tournament. 

The biggest one was GM Ju Wenjun's endgame victory against Firouzja in round five. It is her greatest career win by rating.

Dutch IM Eline Roebers (2381) also captured widespread attention when she defeated the top two seeds of the Challengers Tournament back to back, GM Hans Niemann (2692) and then GM Mustafa Yilmaz (2665).

Ju went on to score 4.5/13, gaining 9.7 rating points with a 2615 performance. Unfortunately, Roebers lost every game from round seven through 13. But the point remains the same: when women have the opportunity, they can score wins against the world's strongest grandmasters. 

Sexism In Chess Continues

18-year-old IM Divya Deshmukh finished on 4.5/13 and gained 6.7 rating points in the Challengers tournament, a respectable performance. She posted the following on Instagram afterward. 

I have been wanting to address this for a while but was waiting for my tournament to be over. I got told and also myself noticed how women in chess are often just taken for granted by the spectators, Most recent example of this on a personal level would be in this tournament, I played a few games which I felt were quite good and i was proud of them and I got told by people how the audience was not even bothered with the game but instead focused on every single possible thing in the world, my clothes, hair, accent and every other irrelevant thing. I was quite upset to hear this and I think is the sad truth that people when women play chess they are often overlook how good they actually are, the games they play and their strength...

The audience was not even bothered with the game but instead focused on every single possible thing in the world, my clothes, hair, accent and every other irrelevant thing.

—Divya Deshmukh

The message was posted on Reddit and received several hundred comments. Others expressed their opinions on Twitter. 

Chess.com also recently published an article specifically on this case, which you can read here.

In an instance of transphobia or misogyny during the same tournament, a Twitter comment likened Roebers to a man after she defeated Niemann. Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr made a viral post about it, one that started a conversation.

Fair Play Is Still A Concern Over The Board

After winning the Challengers section with a final-round victory against Divya, Mendonca brought up a potentially controversial point. He said the following: 

I was just wondering to myself whether I'm seeing real things or am I just imagining things but then I started looking at it over and over again and I thought, okay, maybe it's winning, but still I wasn't like sure, and then I saw these camera crew guys, they were coming to take my photo and all and I thought, okay, maybe I'm winning, that's the only reason they would take my photo. So then it confirmed my suspicions that it actually works, the whole thing.

And then I saw these camera crew guys, they were coming to take my photo and all and I thought, okay, maybe I'm winning...

—Leon Luke Mendonca 

This is an important question for all tournament organizers to consider. 

The FIDE Circuit Is Complicated

Another interesting factor to consider is that the FIDE Circuit, which will determine two 2026 Candidates spots, awarded Mendonca more points for winning the Challengers than it did to Giri, Abdusattorov, or Gukesh for tying for first in the Masters.

The average rating of the Challengers was 2570, while the average rating of the Masters was 2712. 

Blitz Is Important, Even In Classical Tournaments

For a long time, there has been a clear demarcation between classical events and speed chess events, featuring rapid and blitz. The general rule was that classical is prestigious and matters more, while rapid and blitz are casual and less high-stakes. 

Yet three of the last four classical world championships have been decided by rapid tiebreaks. In fact, the most recent match was one game away from reaching blitz tiebreaks for the first time in history.

In between his classical game and the blitz tiebreaks that decided Tata Steel, Giri posted the following joke on X.

The joke raises a question, though: are events like the Titled Cup and the Champions Chess Tour really so far removed from classical chess? Does online chess still live in its own sphere, or can it serve as preparation for the world's strongest classical chess events?  For example, Nepomniachtchi admitted that the line he played in round 10 of the 2023 world championship was inspired by an international master's game in Titled Tuesday. 

It would be a good question to ask the world number-three GM Hikaru Nakamura, who later this year will be playing his second Candidates Tournament since becoming a full-time streamer.

The Tata Steel Chess tournament took place January 13-28, 2024, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control was 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game with a 30-second increment. Both the Masters and Challengers groups were 14-player round-robin tournaments.

Previous posts:

• Wei Yi Wins 2024 Tata Steel Chess Masters In Thrilling Tiebreak
• Tata Steel Chess Masters Wide Open As Vidit Beats Abdusattorov, Becomes India's #1
• Abdusattorov Sole Leader At Tata Steel Masters; Wei Yi Wins Brilliancy
• Abdusattorov, Gukesh Lead At Tata Steel Chess Masters
• Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa Catch Leaders; Warmerdam Suffers Worst Nightmare
• Firouzja Joins Leaders; Abdusattorov Falls Behind In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• Abdusattorov Beats Giri For Shared Lead With Gukesh In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• Firouzja Bounces Back In Tata Steel Chess Masters; Roebers Wins Again
• Women Ascendant In Tata Steel As Ju Wenjun Upsets Firouzja, Roebers Defeats Niemann
• Praggnanandhaa Defeats World Champion Ding, Passes Anand To Become #1 In India
• Giri Beats Donchenko, Catches Firouzja In 1st Place
• Firouzja Moves To 2/2 In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• 4 Black Wins In Tata Steel Chess Masters Opening Round
• Ding Liren Ready For Tata: 'I Feel Much Better Than Before'
• 2024 Tata Steel Chess: World Champion Ding Returns, Carlsen Missing