Beverwijk is a small town that includes the beach resort of Wijk aan Zee. Being an industrial town dependent on the proximity of the Tata Steel Works, Beverwijk does not rate high as a tourist destination. The main reasons for visiting it are to go to the beach and to visit the Bazaar, supposedly the largest covered market in Europe.
Wijk aan Zee is a small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the the Netherlands. Due to its seaside location, Wijk aan Zee has become a popular destination among tourists. This is reflected in the village economy which consists to a large extent of bars and hotels and in 1999, Wijk aan Zee named itself "Cultural Village of Europe", recognizing the special nature of village life in general.
Today Wijk aan Zee is the city where the prestigious Tata Steel tournament is held, but it wasn’t always called the “Tata Steel Tournament.”
After Max Euwe became World Champion, the steelworkers at Hoogovens started a small chess club and held their first New Year's tournament in 1938. Thus, the tournament was originally known as Hoogovens, or sometimes Beverwijk which was the city where it was held. In 1968 it was still called Hoogovens, but it was held in Wijk aan Zee which the tournament was also sometimes called.
Then beginning in 2000, the tournament became known as either Corus or Wijk aan Zee. Finally, in 2011, the name for the tournament was changed from Corus to Tata Steel.
It can get confusing. It was called the Hoogovens tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel to form the Corus Group in 1999, after which the tournament was called the Corus tournament. Corus Group became Tata Steel Europe in 2007 which is the name we know the tournament by today. But then, again, sometimes the tournaments have been referred to by the locations, Beverwijk and Wijk aan Zee.
Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings; for example, the 2011 event was referred to as the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
Since 1938, the list of winners have been some of the best players in the world. Of the eight World Champions since 1946, only Vasily Smyslov and Bobby Fischer are missing.
In 2001, nine of the top ten players in the world participated. They were Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, Adams, Leko. Morozevich, Shirov, Topalov, Ivanchuk with only the number 10 player Gelfand missing.
Past winners of these tournaments include: Max Euwe, Bent Larsen, Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, Lajos Portisch, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik, Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, and Magnus Carlsen.
The early tournaments were small, starting with groups of four Dutch players. The first five tournaments continued this way, with the contest held annually early in January. But from this humble beginning, the event grew into a monster.
The very first Hoogovens was played in 1938 in Beverwijk, with four participants and first place was a tie between Jiling Van Dijk and Philip Bakker with 2.5 points, Jan Zoontjes (1.0 points) and Piet Van der Bronk who failed to score even a half point.
The 1939 event was won by Nicolaas Cortlever ahead of Van Steenis with Van Dijk and Bakker tied for third. These fellows were the “usual” players until 1940 when Euwe finished ahead of Van Steenis, Cortlever and Arthur Wijnans.
In 1943 and 1944 the tournament field was doubled in size to eight players with no tournament held in 1945. The first international tournament was held in 1946. There were ten players until 1953 when it was increased to twelve and an international women's tournament was also held. In 1954 the tournament field was returned to ten players. The field was enlarged to 18 in 1963 then reduced to 16 in 1964 and by that time the tournament had become the strongest international tournament in the world.
As the tournament grew in stature, the ancillary women's tournament became a regular feature, as did a Masters event and Masters Reserves event. There also began a tradition where the winner of a lesser category event would receive an invitation to the next higher event the following year.
The 1946 tournament was one of the first European international tournaments after World War II. Food shortages were still a problem in Europe, so the post-tournament banquet featured an inexpensive fare: pea soup which was what a lot of people were eating at the time. In subsequent years pea soup was served as the first course of the concluding banquet, a tradition continued when the tournament was moved from Beverwijk to Wijk aan Zee in 1968.
I am assuming that by “pea soup” they mean “split pea” soup. The difference between peas and split peas lies in how they are processed. To make a split pea, a green pea is peeled and dried. The skin is removed and a natural split occurs in the cotyledon...a type of leaf that is part of the developing plant inside a seed and that either stores food or grows from the seed to produce food.
Like beans, lentils and split peas are low in fat and high in protein and fiber and they have the added advantage of cooking quickly without the need for soaking. There is a recipe for a delicious split pea and lentil soup HERE.
Now, having learned all about the names the tournament has gone by and probably more than we want to know about peas and pea soup, let us return to the tournament...specifically the first international one in held in Beverwijk in 1946.
Foreign participant Sir Stuart Milner-Barry was one of a group of prominent chess players who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II and after the war he joined the British Treasury. He was invited to the tournament, but his professional obligations would not allow him to participate. Swiss master Henri Grob was also invited, but was he, too, was unable to attend.
Another British player, William Winter, was invited, but he could not get a visa. During World War II he served in the Honourable Artillery Company, but was an ardent Communist who had served a 6 month prison sentence for sedition, so perhaps his past had something to do with his inability to obtain a visa.
Stoltz from Sweden was considered the favorite and his plane arrived only hours before play began. After Stoltz arrived, the drawing of lots took place and play, which took place from 1-6 pm, started immediately afterwards.
Final standings:
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