Tata Steel Chess India Day 1: Anand, Niemann Lead Open; Yip Leads Women’s

Anand’s Back

Tata Steel Chess India returns for its seventh edition to the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata, India. The event takes place over five days, from January 7 to 11, and features three days of rapid ($10,000 first prize) followed by two days of blitz ($7,500 first prize). The previous time control of 25+10 has been shortened to 15+10, but the blitz is the same at 3+2.

There are two sections, the Open and the Women’s, each with 10 players. Half of the players represent India’s top talents and the other half arrive from China, the U.S., Russia, Georgia, and Greece.

The headliner, of course, is 56-year-old five-time World Champion Anand, who participates for the first time since 2019. Reigning World Champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju withdrew for personal reasons and was replaced by 2022 Rapid winner GM Nihal Sarin. Just last week, GM Arjun Erigaisi—who won the Rapid in 2021—finished with bronze in both the World Rapid and Blitz, and among the star-studded field we also see 2024 Rapid World Champion Murzin.

GMs Wei Yi and Niemann make their debut. The winner of both the Rapid and Blitz in the last edition was GM Magnus Carlsen, who’s not playing, so we are guaranteed new title-holders.

This is the fourth edition of the Women’s event, which since its inception in 2022 has boasted an equal prize fund to the Open tournament. WGM Rakshitta Ravi makes her debut, as well as IMs Yip and Stavroula Tsolakidou.

The others have participated in previous years. Goryachkina, who won the last Rapid edition, also just earned the women’s world rapid championship title in Qatar last week. GM Divya Deshmukh, the 2023 winner and FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 winner, is among the favorites as well.

The rapid tournament is a single round-robin, with three rounds played on each day. So let’s jump into the first three rounds.

Open Rapid: Anand & Niemann Have Best Start

Niemann defeated Murzin with the white pieces in another Advanced Variation, but in the French Defense. 11.c4!? was a key move to gain the advantage out of the opening, but the highlight was Niemann’s king walk up the board to the g7-square at the end. GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes the full Game of the Day below.

In round two, Wei had a winning position against Anand, but with under 30 seconds he settled for a draw by threefold repetition. Anand finished the day with another piece of accurate calculation. Aravindh correctly sacrificed a pawn with 27.Re1 but struggled to show the compensation, and with a nice sequence Anand won a second pawn and the game.

Niemann, on the other hand, also ran into some trouble against GM Vidit Gujrathi in round two, but with little time his opponent settled for a draw by threefold repetition. Niemann told Chess.com’s IM Rakesh Kulkarni, “I guess I was a bit shaky against Vidit, but my wins were relatively dominant.”

Niemann’s win against Praggnanandhaa in the day’s last round was a crusher, and the fireworks started with the bishop “sacrifice” 18.Bxe6!.

Trailing the leaders by a half-point are So and Vidit. After that first-round loss against Anand, So rebounded with two wins, against Murzin and then Wei. The latter was far from smooth, to say the least, as Wei—with the wrong king move—went from checkmating in five moves to being checkmated in two. The coldest of showers!

Going in, Arjun would have been considered one of the favorites to win the event, but he surprisingly started with two losses, against Vidit and Praggnanandhaa, before scoring his first win against Nihal. There are still six rounds to go.

An interesting pairing to follow on Thursday will be So vs. Vidit, as both players are the closest trailers.

Round 4 Open Pairings

Women’s Rapid: Yip Beats Rapid World Champion And Leads

Yip was the only player to reach 2.5 points. Like the leaders of the Open section, she won game one, drew game two, and won again in game three.

Women’s Rapid After Round 3

Yip got the better of her co-debutant Tsolakidou in a mutual time scramble where she had 40 seconds and her opponent 30. 27…Raf8? was a case of “the wrong rook,” as it allowed the tactic in the game. Curiously, 27…Rhf8, also attacking the queen, would have prevented the same tactic since the black queen would be defended.

After a draw against Rakshitta, Yip won her key game against Goryachkina, who last year scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 to win the tournament. The one slow move 15…Bd7? (the pawn sacrifice 15…b5!? was possible) handed the initiative to Yip, and the American is an absolute natural at attacking, as she showed in the game. She converted the advantage with no real mistakes.

Trailing Yip, on two points apiece, is a frightening trio of GM Nana Dzagnidze, GM Kateryna Lagno, and IM Vantika Agrawal. The grandmasters are undefeated, with two draws, while Vantika lost one game against Lagno and won two others, against GMs Vaishali Rameshbabu and Harika Dronavalli.

Vaishali’s standing with 0.5/3 is perhaps the biggest surprise, but there are still two thirds of the tournament remaining.

Divya, who finished on 1/3 with no wins, will look to recover against the tournament leader in Thursday’s first game. You can see the pairings below.

Round 4 Women’s Pairings

Tata Steel Chess India 2026 takes place on January 7 to 11 in Kolkata, India and features an Open and a Women’s section, each consisting of 10 players and with the same prize fund. The first three days of rapid chess (first prize $10,000) are a single round-robin with 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment/move time control. The last two days of blitz (first prize $7,500) are a double round-robin at a 3+2 time control.