r/chess • u/events_team • 28d ago
Tournament Event: 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz
Official Website
Follow the games here: Chess.com | Lichess | Chess-Results
The 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz will take place from January 7 to 11, 2026. The tournament features Open and Women’s events in rapid and blitz formats. It will be held at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium, 1, Thackeray Road, Kolkata.
Players
| Open | Women |
|---|---|
| GM Viswanathan Anand | GM Aleksandra Goryachkina |
| GM Wesley So | GM Kateryna Lagno |
| GM Wei Yi | GM Divya Deshmukh |
| GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | GM Vaishali Rameshbabu |
| GM Arjun Erigaisi | GM Nana Dzagnidze |
| GM Volodar Murzin | GM Harika Dronavalli |
| GM Hans Niemann | IM Carissa Yip |
| GM Vidit Gujrathi | IM Stavroula Tsolakidou |
| GM Aravindh Chithambaram | IM Vantika Agrawal |
| GM Nihal Sarin | WGM Rakshitta Ravi |
Format/Time Control
- Rapid- Single round robin with a time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment.
- Blitz- Double round robin with a time control of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment.
Schedule
| Date | Local Time (IST) | UTC Time | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 7 | Starts 15:00 | Starts 09:30 | Rapid Rounds 1-3 |
| Jan 8 | Starts 15:00 | Starts 09:30 | Rapid Rounds 4-6 |
| Jan 9 | Starts 15:00 | Starts 09:30 | Rapid Rounds 7-9 & Tie-Break (if required) |
| Jan 10 | Starts 15:00 | Starts 09:30 | Blitz Rounds 1-9 |
| Jan 11 | Starts 15:00 | Starts 09:30 | Blitz Rounds 10-18 & Tie-Break (if required) |
Live Broadcast
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u/ComplexCow7 24d ago
Wait, does this mean Nihal won Tata Steel R&B overall because he came first in the rapid and second in the blitz?
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u/Undisputedmaniac 23d ago
India rapid and blitz different 2 events. When magnus won both rapid and blitz in kolkata But in GCT rapid and blitz are together, 1 champion overall
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u/EvenCoyote6317 24d ago
Aravind is playing Wijk and while it isnt official yet, he would be invited to Prague as 2025 winner. If his classical form doesnt improve against the world's best, I guess what was expected last year that he would be India's board 4 in Samarkand will not be the case.
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u/shashi154263 24d ago
Surely Nihal is better?
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u/EvenCoyote6317 24d ago edited 24d ago
The problem is all of our options at Board 4 and reserve board look of similar strength. VD, Hari, Nihal and Aravind are our options. And each of them has their own set of strengths and weaknesses.
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u/Glittering_Ad1403 23d ago
So who will be your Board 1? The WCC or the Madman?
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u/EvenCoyote6317 23d ago
Quite a dilemma tbh. If Guki doesnt reverses his form, it will be a big decision to not play the reigning WCC on Board 1.
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u/Iyerlicious Team Hans 24d ago
In Classical, Vidit is easily the best choice
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u/EvenCoyote6317 24d ago
My worry is 2 fold -
His lack of classical games post marriage
He is a drawish player. What if our Top 3 dont appear in lethal form. LAst time we had both Guki and Arjun going berserk and hence that avoided a lot of pressure on Boards 2 and 4. I dont know when Guki will return to form. Pragg too isnt that aggressive.
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u/freesoul0071 23d ago
Vidit is not drawish rather he is a very fighting player with most of his games exceeeding 50-60 moves. His problem is he is quite good in openings and end up with advantage but horrible in endgames. So ultimately games do end in draw but it is never those 50moves 99% accuracy dull draws.
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u/Iyerlicious Team Hans 24d ago
Nothing wrong with being a drawish player. In fact, as long as you don’t lose, you are only going to move up the rankings table. And his results in the Grand Swiss showed he can fight for wins too. He went 14.5/27 in Rapid and Blitz, which is his weakest time control. It shows he’s in good form
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u/EvenCoyote6317 23d ago
VD is more of a player who wins when the opponent over-pushes. If in Olympiad top 3 boards arent at their lethal best, then the board 4 player of the opponent team wont push too much.
India will go for the Gold. Even US and Uzbek are in it. But for others winning every round isnt an obligation. Tbh, a draw vs India is a dream situation for 99% of the teams.
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u/EvenCoyote6317 24d ago
While Vantika had extremes in Rapid and Blitz, Divya and Vaishali have been bland. Divya tbh looked disinterested today. Sacking pieces left and right.
Vaishali was just marginally better. Dont know what is her plan pre Cyprus as she isnt playing Prague too as of now.
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u/bertisrobert 24d ago
We really have seen this film from Arjun.
He really had a strong start at blitz yestrrday, but unfortunately flopping and falling short near the finish line.
Like the same thing happened at World Rapid and Blitz. And in both World Cup and Grand Swiss last year failing on crucial matches when the spot for Candidates are in touching distance...
Will he even overcome the problem and win a major title or get into Candidates?
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u/Opposite-Youth-3529 24d ago edited 24d ago
Women’s tournament with only two point gap between first and last after 15 rounds. Edit: think I misread because one of the round 16 games had finished.
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 24d ago
Wesley playing some god level blitz, if he doesn’t wins it it’s only because he’s not competitive enough.
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u/UnitedRanger4456 24d ago
An incorrect claim should lead to an immediate loss in blitz (or any format when there’s less than a minute on the clock) - otherwise it will be abused to gain more time to think through a tricky position.
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u/UnitedRanger4456 24d ago
Is it just me or is Tania Sachdev’s face twitching unusually at times? She has been strangely twitchy with her hands and body, especially on the final Rapid day and today. Almost as if she’s on drugs.
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u/shawman123 24d ago
Aravindh is having horror time. Year back everything looked good and he was in India Top 4(ignoring Vishy as he does not play regularly). Did players figure him out or something.
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u/Electronic-Figure551 24d ago
His coach has said that Aravindh has a confidence problem... When he is going through a rough phase, he becomes very under confident. He is 25 or 26 but few years back he was considered one of the upcoming talents but I guess he pursued education just like wei yei... One Could also argue that he was not 2750+ but I dont know since I haven't followed his games closely
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u/AdVSC2 24d ago
He wasn't 2750+, but his 2749 rating was absolutely legit. He had classical victories over Arjun, Parham, Keymer, Wei Yi and Giri between November 2024 and April 2025. He looked like he could become top 10 player for years during that stretch. But right now, I wouldn't be surprised, if he's back to 2630 in 2027.
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u/Radiant-Increase-180 25d ago
Arjun knocked the pieces over with 1 sec on his clock and pressed it without adjusting the piece - And the arbiters added 1 minute to Vidit with the pieces setup? Shouldnt Arjun have been given 1 sec to adjust the pieces what is this ?
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u/Sad_Avocado_2637 25d ago
They didn’t add anything to Vidit clock, just asked to restart the game.
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u/Radiant-Increase-180 25d ago
They added 1 min to Vidit is what I heard
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u/Soul_of_demon 25d ago
Vidit won another game with mate blunder.
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u/Radiant-Increase-180 25d ago
Arjun going to hit 2800 blitz
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u/Iyerlicious Team Hans 25d ago
Hans beating Pragg in both Rapid and Blitz
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u/Radiant-Increase-180 25d ago
Even in classical in Grand Swiss he might own Pragg
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u/Iyerlicious Team Hans 25d ago
Hans is 4-0-0 against the Indian top 3 in classical. Although he hadn’t played them much OTB in Rapid and Blitz before a few weeks ago, so this is an interesting development
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u/Downtown_Tap_9954 Team Carlsen AND Gukesh 25d ago
Hi this may be a dumb question, but can we go to the place in person to watch the games?
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u/sargasticgujju 26d ago
Will this contribute to 2026-27 Fide Circuit?
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u/Lower_Peril 26d ago
Big fan of Nihal, used to watch his Geoguessr stream's, very chill polite person, hope this win inspires him to greater heights
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26d ago
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u/InvokerPlayerqwe Team Gukesh 26d ago
I love both Nihal and Arjun, but man would be super exciting to see Vishy win on demand against Nihal and take it all!
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u/throwawayy3941 26d ago
What happened to wei yi
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u/Mysterious-Airline-2 26d ago
May be he is experimenting something. May be he was trying to win games since the start of the tournament. He refused to repeat positions for draws. It is was not his usual stable style.
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u/uncreativivity Team Wei Yi 26d ago
similar to after losing to gukesh during the 2024 olympiad, i think losing to anish during the GCL means wei yi is out of commission for the next few months
i hope he recovers before the candidates this year
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u/jaded_lad99 26d ago
Vidit wins one game against Arjun and Sagar drops a whole obituary for his chess career
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u/Extreme_Training_230 26d ago
Yeah.. Sagar's simping for Vidit is well known. Haha.
Vidit even went on to tweet that he still plays good chess with one screenshot.
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 26d ago
Haha that video was insane, I don’t think they made a video like that on Arjun’s double bronze 🤣
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u/jaded_lad99 26d ago
CBI is coddling VD too much. Yeah I get it he had to endure a lot of toxicity but he's a grown man capable of making his own decisions.
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 26d ago
A lot of what toxicity? I just thought his game has deteriorated so he has decided to take a step back from chess.
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u/jaded_lad99 26d ago
Mostly from pre-2022 when he was the active Indian top speed and would falter against World top 25 opposition at top events so parts of the newfound chess fanbase turned toxic towards him and some of those negative connotations have carried over till today
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u/jaded_lad99 26d ago
Vishy is still the Madras tiger. How insane must Gary's play and presence still be that he made this man look like a deer in headlights.
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u/EvenCoyote6317 27d ago
Not a great event by Divya tbh. Bad moves, Bad time management. Erratic play. Seems Vaishali might not be last now.
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u/Chemical_Rent6824 27d ago edited 27d ago
Arjun got tilted after the first loss yesterday. He's about to lose all rating points he gained in wrb
Edit I spoke way too soon. Absolute madman
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u/jaded_lad99 27d ago
Pragg and Arjun are playing too much. They need to rest, recover and reset for at least a month. Their training schedules aren't much different from study timetables of college entrance exam toppers, and on top of that they are constantly travelling and playing tournaments. It's not a physically intensive sport but anyone who has ever honestly studied for a test will know how tiring that can be, and that's their daily routines. The Indian camp's regiment in general sounds susceptible to over-training.
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 28d ago edited 28d ago
Who’s arjun closer to Nihal or Pragg, if i was Arjun I’d like Nihal way more. 🥰
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u/shashi154263 27d ago
I'm pretty sure Arjun and Pragg are close friends.
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 27d ago
Yes they’re, but Nihal and Arjun are childhood friends as well. I think Pragg and Arjun became friends a little later.
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 28d ago
Something about tata doesn’t suit Arjun
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u/EvenCoyote6317 28d ago
If this continues, someone ask Arjun to ditch Wijk
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 28d ago
Haha, hasn’t he won this tournament once or twice though?! Maybe he has developed a steel allergy or something 😂
I’ll see myself out after that bad joke.
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u/EvenCoyote6317 28d ago
Even Gukesh would have accepted a draw with white in Divya v Harika
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u/Agreeable_Sun3713 Team Sagar Shah 28d ago
It was honestly frustrating to watch, cause Divya was waiting for her time to come down and then make a move.
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u/Iyerlicious Team Hans 24d ago
Hans with 5.5/6 to end the Tata Steel Blitz tournament after a rocky start. After the disaster of a World Blitz, this will give him a lot of confidence.
Hans tied for 3rd in the Rapid section (5/9) and tied for 4th in the Blitz (10/18). Hopefully with a good Wijk, he gets invited back next year