Tata steel masters 2023, Wijk aan Zee , Netherlands

[Saffron Lenin]

Line-up:

Magnus Carlsen Norway Rank 1
Ding Liren China Rank 2
Fabiano Caruana United States Rank6
Anish Giri Netherlands Rank 7
Wesley So United States Rank8
Richard Rapport Romania Rank15
Levon Aronian United States Rank17
Jan-Krzysztof Duda Poland Rank 18
Dommaraju Gukesh India Rank 23
Arjun Erigaisi India Rank 28
Nodirbek Abdusattorov Uzbekistan Rank32
Vincent Keymer Germany Rank 42
Jorden van Foreest Netherlands Rank 47
R Praggnanandhaa India Rank 62

[Saffron Lenin]

13 to 29January

[Saffron Lenin]

All the Indians are lower seeds...Do not keep very high expectations!!!!!

[Sin Hombre]

Adhiban finished 3rd as the bottom "seed" a few years back.

I would not look at the "seeding" as much in chess. Magnus and Ding/Nepo are a level above but the likes of Gukesh and Arjun can and should be able to compete with the rest of this field.

This is chess and ELO tells you a lot on average. Let's look at Wesley So (2760) and Gukesh (2725).

In an one-off game, Wesley will win 27% of the time, Gukesh 18% and 55% odds of a draw. There isn't that much in it and Wesley will be the 5th seed at Wijk. Gukesh beat Fabi in their last and only encounter at the Olympiad.

[Saffron Lenin]

Let's hope for best

[prasen9]

So, why are the players so separated by ranking? That is, a lot of top players are missing. What is the invitation criterion? Does not seem to be straight ranking.

[Saffron Lenin]

I m not sure, but it seems like Russian players are deliberately not invited....Other players may have prior commitments

[Saffron Lenin]

Disaster tournament of indians....Arjun finished last and gukesh 3rd last

[Saffron Lenin]

Only positive is Praggnanandhaa who finished 8th.....He was last seed in the tournament

[prasen9]

We had #9, #10, and #14 seeds and we got #8, #13, and #14. That is under-performance.

[Saffron Lenin]

Certainly, it's under performance!!! However, we have to note that all 3 indian players are below 19 year of age...
There were 5 players who were under 20, Out of which 4 finished badly....Only Nodirbek of Uzbekistan who is 18 year old finised good as a runner up!!! ( In fact Nodirbek was leading throughout the tournament, he lose his nerves in last round and thus finished second, which in opinion is due to lack of experience)....