All participants of both the masters and the challengers groups of the 2016 Tata Steel Chess Tournament have been announced.

Since early November we have known that Magnus Carlsen is going to defend his title at the 2016 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The Norwegian star is going to play in Wijk aan Zee for the 12th time.

Back then, 12 of the 14 participants in the masters group were announced. Since then, the other two names were revealed as well: Evgeny Tomashevsky and Pavel Eljanov.

Tomashevsky qualifed as the wildcard of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP). Pavel Eljanov convinced the organizers in Baku, where he played very well in the World Cup.

Tata Steel 2016 | Participants, Masters

Name Rating World # Country Magnus Carlsen 2834 1 Norway Fabiano Caruana 2787 7 USA Anish Giri 2784 8 The Netherlands Ding Liren 2776 9 China Wesley So 2775 10 USA Sergey Karjakin 2766 12 Russia Pavel Eljanov 2763 13 Ukraine Shakhryar Mamedyarov 2748 16 Azerbaijan Evgeny Tomashevsky 2744 18 Russia Michael Adams 2737 20 Great Britain Wei Yi 2730 27 China David Navara 2730 26 Czech Republic Hou Yifan 2683 59 China Loek van Wely 2636 132 The Netherlands

The participants of the challengers were announced last week. Yet again it's a mix of all kinds of players: young, more experienced, solid, more aggressive, you name it.

The Dutch audience has to do without the legendary Jan Timman this year. Instead, a promising young star is making his debut: Jorden van Foreest. At only 16 he is the youngest Dutch grandmaster at the moment.

Van Foreest will meet the youngest grandmaster in the world in this tournament: the American Samuel Sevian, who is only 15.

Nijat Abasov qualified for the challengers by winning the Cultural Village tournament recently. Alexei Dreev, a former winner in Wijk aan Zee, qualified as another ACP wild card: the one for veteran players (45 years and older (Dreev is 46).

Tata Steel 2016 | Participants, Challengers

Name Country Rating Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu Germany 2675 Adhiban Baskaran India 2669 Eltaj Safarli Azerbaijan 2653 Alexey Dreev Russia 2644 Erwin l’Ami Netherlands 2628 Benjamin Bok Netherlands 2594 Samuel Sevian United States 2578 Mikhail Antipov Russia 2569 Nijat Abasov Azerbaijan 2556 Jorden van Foreest Netherlands 2547 Ju Wenjun China 2543 Nino Batsiashvili Georgia 2498 Miguoël Admiraal Netherlands 2438 Anne Haast Netherlands 2390

The 78th edition will run from January 15-31 in Wijk aan Zee, Utrecht and Amsterdam.