Sergey Karjakin – Tata Steel 2016 Player Preview

Tata Steel 2016 is one of the strongest tournaments in 2016. The Masters bracket of the tournament features 14 of the most renowned chess players today. Each day before the tournament, Chessdom brings you a pre-tournament summary for one of the 14 participating Grandmasters.

Magnus Carlsen / Fabiano Caruana / Anish Giri / Liren Ding / Wesley So / Sergey Karjakin / Pavel Eljanov / Shakhryar Mamedyarov / Evgeny Tomashevsky / Michael Adams / David Navara / Yi Wei / Yifan Hou / Loek van Wely

Karjakin is placed fifth on the Tata Steel 2016 starting rank list – can he climb to number 1 by the final round?

The highlight for Karjakin’s 2015 must be his performance in the 2015 FIDE World Cup, where he secured first place in a dramatic fashion. First, he defeated Pavel Eljanov in a spectacular set of chess games in order to secure his place in the finals. Swapping wins in the first set of rapid games and a win and a draw for Karjakin in the second set of games, he defeated the Ukrainian and moved on to the finals to face compatriot Peter Svidler.

After falling behind in a swift 0-2, Karjakin climbed back in a must win situation and eventually equalized the score. In one of the most exciting finishes to a tournament last year, Karjakin was able to come back from two games behind to an overall score of 6-4, after starting out on the back foot.

Sergey Karjakin is a veteran of the Corus/Tata Steel series. He has participated 7 times and has 1 win under his belt in 2009. Karjakin’s secret how to win the first super tournament of the year – the cold water of the Wijk Aan Zee sea.

Follow the Tata Steel 2016 live daily on Chessdom.com with triple engine analysis by Komodo, Stockfish, and Houdini and via GM commentary in pgn and pdf by GM Kuljasevic, GM Grigorov, IM Videnova, and GM Arnaudov through Chess Insider (January) and Modern Chess (January) magazines.