Tata Steel Chess India is the Indian arm of the Tata Steel chess sponsorship that famously underwrites the Wijk aan Zee super-tournament every January. The Indian edition is held annually in Kolkata in late November and runs as a combined rapid-and-blitz event over six days. The 2026 edition is the seventh running of the format.
The 2025 edition was a watershed for Indian chess — held in the same year as Gukesh Dommaraju’s world championship victory and Arjun Erigaisi’s rise past 2800 Elo, the tournament drew the strongest field in its history and was won by Arjun Erigaisi in a tiebreak over Anish Giri. The 2026 edition is expected to feature Gukesh Dommaraju (now world champion), Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, and a mix of international grandmasters invited by the Tata Steel Group.
Format: 9 rounds of rapid (25+10) followed by 18 rounds of blitz (3+2), with combined scoring. The venue is typically the ITC Royal Bengal, a five-star hotel in Kolkata’s south. The Indian rapid-and-blitz scene has matured significantly since the first edition in 2018, and Chess India broadcasts now feature commentary from multiple Indian grandmasters in English, Hindi, and Bengali.
The Indian chess audience for this event is enormous by global standards — TV networks broadcast highlights and major Indian newspapers cover results on their front sport pages.
For the live broadcast and final standings, see the official Tata Steel Chess India site linked in the right column.