Caruana Tops Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 Lineup; Oro (11) Plays Challengers

The 2025 Tata Steel Chess Tournament's Masters group has 2020 winner GM Fabiano Caruana as the top seed in a field that includes five top 10 players. Many eyes will be on the 11-year-old IM Faustino Oro from Argentina, who will be playing in the Challengers group. The organizers announced the field of players today.

Although the news should be about who does play, the first thing most chess fans will note is that GM Magnus Carlsen won't be present in Wijk aan Zee for the second year in a row. The last time that happened was before his debut in 2004 when he won Grandmaster Group C as a 13-year-old. The field for the 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament is very strong nonetheless, as it includes the world's number two, four, five, six, and nine, and another five players in the world's top 30.

Especially the Indian contingent is well represented with, for instance, the sensation of the last few months, GM Arjun Erigaisi, and the world championship contender GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who could well be the new world champion by the time the tournament starts. (His opponent in the upcoming title match, GM Ding Liren, is also missing in Wijk aan Zee – note that Ding beat Gukesh in this year's tournament).

India's representation further includes GMs Vidit Gujrathi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Leon Luke Mendonca, the winner of last year's Challengers. It's also good to see GM Wei Yi returning to Wijk aan Zee as the defending champion. The Chinese grandmaster won a thrilling playoff last year ahead of Gukesh as well as GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Anish Giri; the latter two will also be playing again.

As the tournament takes place in the Netherlands, it's no surprise to see two more Dutch players: GMs Jorden van Foreest and Max Warmerdam. The German rising star GM Vincent Keymer is playing, too. The last two names are players who used to represent Russia but changed federations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine: GMs Vladimir Fedoseev (now representing Slovenia) and Alexey Sarana (Serbia).

"I always strive for a balance between the well-known top players and promising talents," said tournament director Jeroen van den Berg. "The Masters will feature grandmasters who can still be regarded as talents in terms of age, but in terms of performance they have been outstanding for so long that they have actually already outgrown that status."

Van den Berg said he was especially referring to Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov, and Gukesh: "I am proud of them when I see how, partly due to their previous participations in our tournament, they are now structurally among the world's top players. In addition, my aim is to select as many players as possible with a strong mentality and willing to fight for the win. I think we can expect an interesting tournament on that front too."

Masters Lineup 

The field for the 2025 Challengers, from which the winner will qualify for the 2026 Masters, is once again a nice mixture of different ages, genders, and backgrounds. Although he's only the 13th seed, 11-year-old Oro is a name to keep an eye on as one of the biggest talents in chess these days. Two more quite young participants are 14-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi (China) and 16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel (Turkey).

On paper, the favorites for tournament victory are the three top 100 players: GMs Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Czech Republic), Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan), and Frederik Svane (Germany). The two reigning world junior champions will be playing, too: GM Kazybek Nogerbek (Kazakhstan) and IM Divya Deshmukh (India). 

Van den Berg: "I am very much looking forward to their arrival and I am curious to see if they can make the same great progress as the previously mentioned names at the Masters. Our tournament really turns out to be an exceptional springboard to the world top. We as an organization are very proud of that."

Challengers Lineup 

The 87th Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place January 17-February 2, 2025, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. Both the Masters and the Challengers are 14-player round-robin tournaments with a classical time control and rest days on Thursday, January 23, Monday, January 27, and Thursday, January 30.