There’s Something About Beth

Amidst extraordinary health protocols, the prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament, which has now come to its 83rd anniversary, will kick off tomorrow in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Because of the pandemic, there will be no other tournaments except the Masters, with no audience allowed in the hall. Travel and visa restrictions also conditioned the field of participants, which was mostly recruited within the confines of the Schengen Area. The magnificent fourteen are (in alphabetical order): David Antón Guijarro, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Anatolyevich Donchenko, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Andrey Evgenyevich Esipenko, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Nils Grandelius, Pentala Harikrishna, Aryan Tari, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jorden van Foreest, and Radosław Wojtaszek. No doubt Miss Harmon, whose absence is due solely to “sovereign orders”, will be missed by all her admirers and friends.