Tata Steel Chess Round 1 delayed by a few hours on opening day for this unusual reason

In a rare moment in the history of Tata Steel Chess, the opening round of the the prestigious chess tournament in Netherlands' Wijk aan Zee was off to a delayed start on Saturday after huge chunks of coal were left at the entrance of the venue by environmental activists.

Round 1 of the 88th edition of the tournament, which previously went by the name Hoogovens Tournament and Corus Chess Tournament, was delayed by a few hours as a result, with the tournament organisers not getting the action underway until the safety of participants was ensured.

Organising committee swings into action right away

The organizing committee took note of the situation immediately and decided to postpone the first round for at least a few hours. The situation was controlled only after the organisers were able to ensure safety of the participants which ran into huge numbers.

The Tata Steel Masters, which got its new name in 2011, was earlier called the Corus tournament named after the steel company based in this coastal town near Amsterdam.

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It was a shocking revelation for most of the players registered for the event. The tournament has not only two elite events but also has many side events wherein hundreds of players from across the globe join in to be a part of this great chess festival that has been celebrated 88 times since 1938 when it first started.

The organisers confirmed that the day will not be lost and they were swift in removing the coal garbage.

World champion D. Gukesh will have his task cut out when he sits behind the black pieces against recently crowned world cup winner Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan.

Tha Tata Steel Masters will have 14 players vying to find a place in the future history books of chess. Arjun Erigaisi is the top seed of the event as the top three ranked players in the world — Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana — are not participating this year.

While the non-participation of Carlsen was expected, Caruana and Nakamura possibly declined in view of the Candidates’ tournament that starts in March.

With a busy schedule in the entire 2025, the world’s top players have had their hands full and this was an expected outcome.

With PTI inputs