Bluebaum and Van Foreest win their first games and join the leaders of Tata Steel on 2/3

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88th Tata Steel 2026 (3)

Bluebaum and Van Foreest win their first games and join the leaders of Tata Steel on 2/3

Mark Crowther - Tuesday 20th January 2026

Vincent Keymer against Matthias Bluebaum seconds before Keymer resigned. Photo ©

Vincent Keymer against Matthias Bluebaum seconds before Keymer resigned. Photo © | https://tatasteelchess.com/en

Five players lead the Tata Steel Chess tournament with a win and two draws after three rounds. Today two new players scored wins to join the leaders, Jorden Van Foreest against a desperately out of form Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum over Vincent Keymer who also has lost his second game of the event. Hans Moke Niemann, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi also have 2/3 after draws today. Praggnanandhaa got off the mark with a draw against Thai Dai Van Nguyen.

Popular favourite Vasyl Ivanchuk won his first game in the Challengers, but had to navigate playing his 40th move with only one second on the clock. Aydin Suleymanli leads that event with 2.5/3 after Miaoyi Lu lost her perfect score when she lost to Andy Woodward.

Round 3 Standings: 1st= Niemann, Van Foreest, Erigaisi, Bluebaum, Abdusattorov 2pts, 6th= Erdogmus, Aravindh, Sindarov, Nguyen, Gukesh, Fedoseev 1.5pts, 12th Keymer 1pt, 13th= Praggnanandhaa, Giri 0.5pts.

Round 4 Pairings Tuesday 20th Jan: Abdusattorov-Nguyen, Gukesh-Praggnanandhaa, Giri-Erigaisi, Fedoseev-Van Foreest, Bluebaum-Sindarov, Erdogmus-Keymer, Aravindh-Niemann.

Round 3 Summary

It used to be a thing that a leading player's last performance before a successful Candidates was sub-par, they're saving their best ideas for the main event, their mind is elsewhere, but on the other hand the entire idea of playing a strong event is to keep good form. Praggnanandhaa and Giri are certainly testing the bad performance before good theory to breaking point so far.

First the good news, after two losses Praggnanandhaa finally got off the mark with a draw against Thai Dai Van Nguyen, there wasn't much in this game, the engines quibble about some decisions but it was basically balanced throughout. Now the bad, Anish Giri lost in round 1, should have lost yesterday and did lose again today to fellow countryman Jorden van Foreest. Much like World Champion Gukesh who suffered much last year there is no cowardice in Giri's choices even when he knows he's off form, this was a full blooded Najdorf with opposite sides castling, 20...Bg6? (20...Bh7) should have been met by 21.h4! which one would play in a bullet game without worry, but that didn't happen and the game trundled along until a second double inaccuracy, 30.g5?! (30.b3=) f5?! (Rc4=) after which white had a nagging small edge. 37...Ra8? (37...b3!) was a more serious error which led to a disadvantage that only increased. There were some inaccuracies from white but van Foreest converted in the end without ever losing his advantage totally.

I never know what to make of Vincent Keymer, he's actually the top seed here, he's immensely talented, plays interesting games, gets lots of chances but also makes far too many bad moves for a player of his exceptional class. Today Keymer played Matthias Bluebaum, a Candidate who doesn't seem to be in crisis and in a bonus for me we got a Carlsbad pawn structure which I like to play and study. 17.h3? was awfully careless, maybe Keymer missed 17...Bh4+ 18.g3 loses, 18.Kf1 was better than his 18.Kd2, 23.Kc2 wasn't good either and he lost in 33 moves.

Arjun Erigaisi against World Champion Gukesh is always interesting, they're both guilty of being a bit too riskily at times, 14.g4?! was probably a bit much and gave Gukesh a small edged until 19...Qd7 when things were roughly equal again, the engine saw some supposed inaccuracies but the draw by repetition on move 34 was fair enough.

26 year old Chithambaram Aravindh has put things together in the last 12 months and that has led to this invitation, he played World Number 12 Nodirbek Abdusattorov (whose main fault is that he is a bit loose, his self belief and aggression his big positives) Chithambaram chose the Four Knights, an opening that was popular at the start of the 20th Century but which is being revisited now as other 1.e4 e5 opening choices are played out. The engine says 28...Nb6?! (28...f6) gave Chithambaram a small advantage and that went away with 34.Nf5?! and the game was drawn on move 41.

Engine analysis revealed nothing much of interest in the drawn games Javokhir Sindarov vs Vladimir Fedoseev, Hans Moke Niemann vs Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (the 14 year old quite rightly is finding his feet with solid play so far). and Praggnanandhaa's draw against Thai Dai Van Nguyen that at least puts him on the scoreboard.

88th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 16 i-1 ii 2026																cat. XIX (2723)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Niemann, Hans Moke	g	USA	2725	*	½	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	2	2805
2.	Bluebaum, Matthias	g	GER	2679	½	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	2	2858
3.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2703	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	½	.	.	.	.	1	2	2848
4.	Erigaisi, Arjun	g	IND	2775	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	½	.	.	.	1	.	2	2847
5.	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2751	.	.	.	.	*	½	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	2	2830
6.	Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan	g	TUR	2658	½	.	.	.	½	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1½	2725
7.	Aravindh, Chithambaram VR.	g	IND	2700	.	½	.	.	½	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1½	2696
8.	Gukesh, D	g	IND	2754	.	.	½	½	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	1½	2734
9.	Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	g	CZE	2656	.	.	½	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	1½	2745
10.	Sindarov, Javokhir	g	UZB	2726	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	½	.	.	½	1½	2739
11.	Fedoseev, Vladimir	g	SLO	2705	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	1	.	.	1½	2742
12.	Keymer, Vincent	g	GER	2776	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	*	.	1	1	2589
13.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2758	.	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	½	2454
14.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2760	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	0	.	*	½	2462

Round 3 (January 19, 2026)
Niemann, Hans Moke	- Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan	½-½	37	B12	Caro Kann Advanced
Van Foreest, Jorden	- Giri, Anish	1-0	64	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Erigaisi, Arjun	- Gukesh, D	½-½	34	D20	QGA
Aravindh, Chithambaram VR.	- Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	½-½	42	C46	Four Knights
Sindarov, Javokhir	- Fedoseev, Vladimir	½-½	29	C42	Petroff's Defence
Keymer, Vincent	- Bluebaum, Matthias	0-1	33	D35	QGD Exchange
Praggnanandhaa, R	- Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	½-½	75	A05	Various

Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (NED), 16 i-1 ii 2026																cat. XII (2544)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Suleymanli, Aydin	g	AZE	2628	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1	2½	2782
2.	Assaubayeva, Bibisara	g	KAZ	2497	½	*	.	.	.	1	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	2	2709
3.	Maurizzi, MarcAndria	g	FRA	2611	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	½	1	.	.	.	.	.	2	2683
4.	Ivanchuk, Vasyl	g	UKR	2605	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	½	1	.	.	.	.	2	2696
5.	Lu, Miaoyi	m	CHN	2431	.	.	.	.	*	0	.	.	.	.	1	1	.	.	2	2655
6.	Woodward, Andy	g	USA	2608	.	0	.	.	1	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	2	2567
7.	Oro, Faustino	m	ARG	2516	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	1	.	2	2714
8.	Yuffa, Daniil	g	ESP	2604	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	1	.	2	2752
9.	Yip, Carissa	m	USA	2466	.	.	0	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	1	.	.	.	1½	2597
10.	Ivic, Velimir	g	SRB	2638	.	.	.	0	.	.	½	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	2450
11.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2576	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	0	.	*	1	.	.	1	2309
12.	Panesar, Vedant	f	IND	2406	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	0	*	.	1	1	2343
13.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2634	0	.	.	.	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Roebers, Eline	m	NED	2398	0	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	0	.	*	0

Round 3 (January 19, 2026)
Assaubayeva, Bibisara	- Oro, Faustino	½-½	36	D37	QGD 5.Bf4
Maurizzi, MarcAndria	- Yip, Carissa	1-0	55	C25	Vienna Game
Lu, Miaoyi	- Woodward, Andy	0-1	58	C50	Giuoco Piano
Ivic, Velimir	- Ivanchuk, Vasyl	0-1	52	C43	Petroff's Defence
Warmerdam, Max	- Panesar, Vedant	1-0	35	C22	Centre Gambit
L'Ami, Erwin	- Yuffa, Daniil	0-1	44	B42	Sicilian Paulsen
Roebers, Eline	- Suleymanli, Aydin	0-1	80	B10	Caro Kann

Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee 2026

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