Tata Steel 2022 - Some lazy predictions

 Magnus Carlsen. This is my pretty safe prediction for the winner of the 2022 Tata Steel Masters, which begins today/midnight Canberra time. As with most editions of the tournament, the organisers haven't packed it with just the top players in the world, although a tournament with Caruana, Giri and Mamedyarov is pretty strong. Even 10th seed Esipenko can be pretty dangerous (as Carlsen knows), although if it isn't Carlsen, then it is only someone else from the top 4 that I can see winning it.

Of interest though is how some of the lower seeded players might do. GM Sam Shankland has been hovering around the 2700 level for  few years, but a tournament like this may be what is needed to move up to the next level. And the bottom seed is R Praggnanandhaa, who is hoping to move up from the 2600 club to the 2700 club.

As with events these days there will be plenty of online coverage, both in terms of live broadcast and online commentary. Youtube is a good place to check (for commentary), while all the major sites (chess24, chess.com, chessbomb etc) will also be broadcasting the moves.