Masters
The opening round of the Tata Steel Masters 2016 witnessed three decisive results and four draws, with all the three decisive games resulting in favour of the white side. The highlight of the day was GM Wesley So’s seemingly effortless win over the super-solid GM Anish Giri. In other decisive games, GM Caruana won convincgly against GM Eljanov while GM Ding Liren overcame GM Adams.
Meanwhile, World Champion Magnus Carlsen had to settle for a draw against GM Navara.
Results:
| Caruana | 1-0 | Eljanov |
| Ding Liren | 1-0 | Adams |
| Navara | ½-½ | Carlsen |
| Mamedyarov | ½-½ | Van Wely |
| Wesley So | 1-0 | Giri |
| Hou Yifan | ½-½ | Karjakin |
| Wei Yi | ½-½ | Tomashevsky |
Challengers:
The first round of the Challengers section turned out to be massively exciting with all the 7 games ending decisively. To single out, GM Baskaran Adhiban, the only Indian in the fray, scored a fascinating victory over GM Abasov.
Results:
| Haast | 0-1 | Van Foreest |
| Antipov | 0-1 | Ju Wenjun |
| Dreev | 1-0 | Bok |
| Safarli | 1-0 | Sevian |
| Adhiban | 1-0 | Abasov |
| L’Ami | 1-0 | Admiraal |
| Nisipeanu | 1-0 | Batsiashvili |