Chess enthusiasts can have fun at the 86th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, the former Hoogovens Chess Tournament, which starts today. In the small Wijk aan Zee, the grandmasters have always been touchable, especially compared to other major chess tournaments, but this edition even more so: thanks to new mini cameras on the edge of the chess board, we now get to hear all the sighs, frowns and smiles.
This way we see the grandmasters closer than ever. Anish Giri, last year’s winner, keeps a reasonably straight face during a practice match against his Dutch colleagues Jorden van Foreest and Max Warmerdam. Champion from two years earlier Foreest has a less good poker face: he frowns and bites his lips, but that could of course also be to mislead his opponent…
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Mini cameras on Tata Steel Chess – NH News
The tournament in Wijk aan Zee is not the very first tournament ever with such cameras. Giri has also seen them elsewhere recently. Does that bother you? “If you are a complete perfectionist and you have all your pieces so neat, then you have something at the beginning of your board that is distracting. But everything for the spectators.”
The amateurs kick off tonight at half past six. Tomorrow at 2 o’clock in the afternoon the grandmasters will play their first match. The matches can be followed on the chess.com channel via the Twitch streaming service.