Who will win Dortmund?

Vladimir Kramnik, 28, Russia, Rating: 2785
Kramnik is a truth-seeker, working hard and meticulously to find truly great moves. It is not the easiest approach to chess. It did win him the Classical Chess World Championship in October 2000. But he has not been playing a lot since. In fact this is his first tournament since the Melody Amber rapid and blindfold event four months ago. Will Kramnik be able to adjust to being able to actually see the pieces? We must remember, though, that Kramnik wins Dortmund practically every time he plays. In 69 Dortmund Super-GM games over ten years he lost exactly once (to Adams in 2000). He is definitely going to feel very much at home in Dortmund.

Viswanathan Anand, 33, India, Rating: 2774
Easygoing and one of the greatest talents around. Vishy has been showing his world class by winning Wijk aan Zee, the Eurotel Trophy in Prague, and other top events – not to forget the SIS Masters in Denmark with an incredible 5.5/6 score. However he seems a bit uncomfortable in Dortmund, which played host to his worst result ever (in 2001, where he lost four games and scratched Dortmund off of every map in his house). On the other hand he has something to prove – there is no such thing as a jinxed city, my friends – and has proved that he can always rise to the occasion.

Peter Leko, 23, Hungary, Rating: 2739
The drawing king mutated into one of the world's most violent players, going for bust in practically every game. That was the style in which he tied for first (with Kramnik) at the 2003 Super-GM in Linares. Peter won the 2002 Candidates Tournament in Dortmund, but there are no sponsors for his title match against Vladimir Kramnik yet. We hear that Einstein will declare the winner of their mini-match in Dortmund the challenger of the FIDE world champion. [Joke, laugh!]. When predicting Leko's results you should look at his first four results in Dortmund: they went Last, Last, Fourth, Fourth, First. See any pattern there?

Viorel Bologan, 31, Moldavia, Rating: 2650
Also know as Viktor, he qualified for this tournament by winning the Aeroflot Open at Moscow (Bologan should probably share and Dortmund prize money with Peru's Julio Granda Zuniga, who lost horribly to Bologan in the final round to hand him the qualification spot which Aleksandrov had thought he had locked up). As far as we can tell Bologan has only one classical chess win against a 2700+ opponent: Bareev in 2002. But he is a very experienced player who has still not reached his peak strength. Good for surprises.

Teimour Radjabov, 16, Azerbaijan, Rating: 2648
The youngest player in this field, but already incredibly suave and sophisticated. At 16 he has already played over 50 games against 2700+ players and chalked up wins against Ivanchuk, Polgar, Bareev, Kasparov (with black in Linares!), Ponomariov, and Gelfand. He is good to do the same to anyone in the Dortmund field. One problem he may face: he has never really competed with other teens before. He can probably see it coming: some day, for the first time in his life, he will lose a game against someone who is actually younger than himself.

Arkadi Naiditsch, 17, Germany, Rating: 2574
Germany's greatest talent, Naiditsch, has only once in his life played a game against an opponent rated over 2645 (Georgiev in 2002, draw). Now he has to play ten such games in a row. Duck. However we should not forget how he blasted the 2640 Robert Hübner in the German Championship in 2002.