Dutch player Anish Giri wins Tata chess tournament

Anish Giri won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee for the first time in his career on Sunday. The 28-year-old Dutchman won on the final day against Romanian Richard Rapport and took the lead in the rankings. His Uzbek competitor Nodirbek Abdusattorov lost to Jorden van Foreest, making Giri the overall winner, NU.nl reports.

“It is the best result I have ever achieved. Only winning the world title is valued higher than the overall victory in TataSteel,” Giri, ranked 7th in the world, said. “But the times I have shared first place are equally dear to me. Tiebreaks are a lottery in my eyes.”

Previously, Giri twice missed the overall victory, once against Norwegian Magnus Carlsen in 2018 and once against compatriot Jorden van Foreest in 2021.

According to Giri, a big challenge was getting used to playing chess in its old-fashioned boardgame form instead of the online tournaments forced by the coronavirus pandemic in recent years. “I hadn’t played classical chess for so long. Here in Wijk aan Zee, I found out again how much it takes. And also how much work there is still for me to do.”

The Dutch grandmaster expects to encounter physical chess boards again in other tournaments this year. “We are entering the cycle of the world championship again. I hope to have such a high rating at the end of the year that I can play in the candidates tournament.”