Tata Steel Chess: Harikrishna faces Frenchman Vachier in opener

The year's first over-the-board round-robin event which begins on Saturday, presents a mix of established names and younger, supremely-talented Grandmasters.

Ranked 22nd in the world, seventh seed Harikrishna is part of a 14-player field that includes World No 1 Magnus Carlsen with the tournament set to begin on Saturday.

Grandmaster P. Harikrishna will open his campaign against third seed and French No. 1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the elite Tata Steel chess tournament at De Moriaan, in the Netherlands on Saturday. Ranked 22nd in the world, seventh seed Hari is part of a 14-player field that includes World No 1 Magnus Carlsen and second-ranked Fabiano Caruana. The year's first over-the-board round-robin event presents a fine mix of established names and some younger, supremely-talented Grandmasters.

 

As per the pairings released late on Friday, Carlsen faces talented Iranian Alireza Firouzja and Caruana takes on Dutchman Jorden Van Foreest. Anish Giri, seeded four, plays Carlsen’s compatriot AryanTari. First-round pairings: P. Harikrishna v Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra); Magnus Carlsen (Nor) v Alireza Firouzja (FIDE); Fabiano Caruana (USA) v Jorden Van Foreest (Ned); Anish Giri (Ned) v Aryan Tari (Nor); Radosław Wojtaszek (Pol) v David Anton Guijarro (Esp); Andrey Esipenko (Rus) v Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol). Nils Grandelius (Swe) v Alexander Donchenko (Ger).