The Tata Steel Chess Tournament and the ACP will continue their cooperation in 2017. In the Tata Steel Challengers a spot will be awarded to a veteran player (45+). Next year that will be Israeli Grandmaster Ilya Smirin (1968), who previously participated in the tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 1993 and 1994. He is the first participant of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2017 to be announced. Tata Steel Chess Tournament director Jeroen van den Berg: “Smirin is known as a very strong Grandmaster and chess aficionados like him for his daring and attacking style”. Coming edition a spot will be reserved for ACP Tour players in the Tata Steel Masters, but also in the Tata Steel Challengers. The members of the ACP have recently voted the Tata Steel Chess Tournament Best Round Robin Tournament of 2015. The 79th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place from Friday 13 January – Sunday 29 January 2017.
A spot has been reserved in the Tata Steel Masters 2017 for the highest ranked ACP Tour player on 1 December 2016 (of the players who had a rating of 2750 or lower on 1 January 2016). In the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2016 that spot went to Russian player Evgeny Tomashevsky. He ended in 11th place and succeeded in surprising everybody by beating Fabiano Caruana in the last round. In 2015 ACP qualifier Radek Wojtaszek managed to beat world champion Magnus Carlsen, who went on to win the tournament. In the Tata Steel Challengers 2017 another spot has been reserved: for the highest ranked ACP Tour Player on 1 December 2016 of the players who had a rating of 2650 or lower on 1 January 2016.
Emil Sutovsky,
ACP President:
“The cooperation offers Grandmasters a unique opportunity to qualify to the most coveted event on the global chess map”. Go to www.tatasteelchess.com for more info about the Tata Steel Chess Tournament.