73rd Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 2011 (Wijk aan Zee NED) Fri 14th Jan 2011 - Sun 30th Jan 2011
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Participants of grandmaster group A
| Name | Country | Rating | Position | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2814 | 1 | Photo |
| GM | Viswanathan Anand | IND | 2810 | 2 | Photo |
| GM | Levon Aronian | ARM | 2805 | 3 | Photo |
| GM | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 2784 | 4 | Photo |
| GM | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 2773 | 7 | Photo |
| GM | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2751 | 10 | Photo |
| GM | Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 2744 | 11 | Photo |
| GM | Ian Nepomniachtchi | RUS | 2733 | 15 | Photo |
| GM | Wang Hao | CHN | 2731 | 17 | Photo |
| GM | Alexei Shirov | SPA | 2722 | 24 | Photo |
| GM | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | FRA | 2715 | 31 | Photo |
| GM | Anish Giri | NED | 2686 | 52 | Photo |
| GM | Jan Smeets | NED | 2662 | 82 | Photo |
| GM | Erwin l'Ami | NED | 2624 | 138 | Photo |
| Average rating | : 2740 |
| Category | : 20 |
I don't see anybody out of the top 4 winning here, unless possibly Nepomniachtchi since he has probably the biggest upside of anybody outside of that group. Also difficult not to see Smeets or l'Ami at the bottom but that's no knock on their abilities in such a super strong tournament!
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Participants of grandmaster group B
| Name | Country | Rating | Position | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | Radek Wojtaszek | POL | 2726 | 20 | Photo |
| GM | David Navara | CZE | 2708 | 34 | Photo |
| GM | Laurant Fressinet | FRA | 2707 | 35 | Photo |
| GM | Zahar Efimenko | UKR | 2701 | 38 | Photo |
| GM | Wesley So | PHL | 2673 | 64 | Photo |
| GM | Gabriel Sargissian | ARM | 2667 | 75 | Photo |
| GM | Le Quang Liem | VNM | 2664 | 78 | Photo |
| GM | Luke McShane | ENG | 2664 | 78 | Photo |
| GM | Surya Ganguly | IND | 2651 | 98 | Photo |
| GM | Li Chao | CHN | 2649 | 100 | Photo |
| GM | Jon Ludvig Hammer | NOR | 2647 | 103 | Photo |
| GM | Vlad Tkachiev | FRA | 2636 | 120 | Photo |
| GM | Friso Nijboer | NLD | 2584 | 269 | Photo |
| GM | Wouter Spoelman | NLD | 2547 | 436 | Photo |
| Average rating | : 2659 |
| Category | : 17 |
I will be watching closely here current teammate Ludvig Hammer and also former longtime teammate Luke McShane. I think this group is almost anybodies to win but the Dutch will struggle here like in the A group.
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Participants of grandmaster group C
| Name | Country | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | Murtas Kazhgaleyev | KAZ | 2637 | Photo |
| GM | Ivan Ivanisevic | SRB | 2630 | Photo |
| GM | Mark Bluvshtein | CAN | 2590 | Photo |
| GM | Daniele Vocaturo | ITA | 2570 | Photo |
| GM | Dariusz Swiercz | POL | 2540 | Photo |
| IM | Ilya Nyzhnyk | UKR | 2530 | Photo |
| GM | Katherina Lahno | UKR | 2518 | Photo |
| IM | Roeland Pruijssers | NED | 2484 | Photo |
| IM | Benjamin Bok | NLD | 2453 | Photo |
| IM | Robin van Kampen | NLD | 2443 | Photo |
| GM | Sebastian Siebrecht | GER | 2439 | Photo |
| IM | Mark van der Werf | NLD | 2439 | Photo |
| IM | Jan Willem de Jong | NLD | 2437 | Photo |
| IM | Tania Sachdev | IND | 2382 | Photo |
| Average rating | : 2507 |
| Category | : 11 |
C-group is interesting although way less strong than the B-group. Nyzhnyk is now I think the youngest current GM but somehow this group doesn't excite me very much.
