In cooperation with the ACP, the professional chess players union, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament has decided to reserve a spot for a veteran player (45+) in the Tata Steel Challengers for the 2016 and 2017 editions. For the 78th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament this will be awarded to Russian Alexey Dreev (46), who won the tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 1995. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2016 will take place in Wijk aan Zee from 15 - 31 January 2016.
Wild cards revisited

This step is an extension of last year's cooperation with the ACP. Just like in the 2015 edition the highest ranked player of the ACP Tour (of the players who had a rating of or below 2750 on 1 January 2015) on 1 December 2015 will be invited to participate in the Tata Steel Masters. At the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015 that was Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland). His performance was strong and he surprised everybody with his wins against world champion Magnus Carlsen and the world's number two, Fabiano Caruana. He ended 9th (of 14 participants). In the Tata Steel Challengers there will once again be a ticket for the highest placed of the ACP Womens Tour on 1 December 2015. In this years edition that spot went to Valentina Gunina (Russia), who also ended 9th.

Tournament director Jeroen van den Berg: Especially Wojtaszek's strong performance was a pleasant surprise during the last edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. A player like him doesn't very often get the chance to prove himself during a top tournament. I think that awarding a ticket to a veteran player in the Tata Steel Challengers can also bring an element of surprise to our tournament.

Source
http://www.tatasteelchess.com/news/view/id/855/c/Permanent_veteran_spot_at_Tata_Steel_Chess_Tournament