Melody Amber rapid and blindfold tournament

Viswanathan Anand, India, born Dec. 11, 1969, Elo 2792, world ranking: 3. "Vishy" Anand's stellar performance in Monaco last year will be remembered as one of the best in the history of the Amber tournament (he won both the rapid and the blindfold with consummate ease). He won the overall tournament four times, in 1994, 1997, 2003 and 2005. At the FIDE World Championship in San Luis he came equal second, and shared first with Topalov in Wijk aan Zee 2006. There he gained enough Elo points to cross the magic 2800 barrier in the upcoming April list. Anand has won the the FIDE World Championship in 2000, and Linares in 1998, Dortmund in 2004, Wijk aan Zee five times, and too many other tournaments to list here. In rapid chess he is in a class of his own. Anand lives in Spain, close to Madrid, but visits his native India quite often, where he is one of the country's biggest sports heroes.

Peter Svidler, Russia, born June 17, 1976, Elo 2765, world ranking: 4. Pyotr Svidler's fourth place in the world rankings confirms what experts have suspected since his late teens: this is a top player of his generation. He made his debut in the mid-1990s by winning the Russian championship four times (twice in his teens). In 1997, at the age of 21, he shared first in Tilburg with Kramnik and Kasparov, beating the latter in their direct encounter. Svidler was joint second with Anand at the FIDE World Championship in San Luis and started the Morelia/Linares in superb style before collapsing, especially in the second half, demonstrating to the world that he still has to work on one aspect of chess: stability. Svilder lives in St Petersburg and has twin sons. His great passion in life is international cricket. Chess, we believe, comes second.

Levon Aronian, Armenia, born October 6, 1982, Elo 2752, world ranking: 5. Levon Aronian is an Armenian, 23 years old, who is currently in the news for winning the category 20 Morelia/Linares Super-GM ahead of Topalov, Leko, Svidler and Ivanchuk. That came after spectacular wins in Gibraltar, Nagorno-Karabakh and a first place in the World Cup tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk, where he defeated former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in the final. We must remember that Aronian was World Junior Champion under-12 in 1994 and overall World Junior Champion in 2002. He is one of the hottest commodities ind chess these days.

Peter Leko, Hungary, born September 8, 1979. Elo 2740, world ranking: 7. The challenger to the classical chess world championship and sole winner of Wijk aan Zee 2005 has had a disappointing year. Peter slumped in San Luis and Wijk 2006. After starting spectacularly in the Morelia half of the Super-GM he had a nightmare finish with two losses which moved him from first to fourth place. In 1994, at the age of 14 years, 4 months and 22 days, Peter Leko became the youngest grandmaster in history, and has always been supremely confident in his abilities. He is the only player in the world to complete the classical grand slam in the past few years: in 2002 he won Dortmund, in 2003 he claimed Linares and in 2005 he added Wijk aan Zee to the collection.

Vasily Ivanchuk, Ukraine, born March 18, 1969, Elo 2729, world ranking: 8. Vasily Ivanchuk is the only player who has taken part in all Amber tournaments. He is considered one of the greatest players of modern time, adored by chess fans and considered a genius by hsi colleagues. Nobody doubts he would be world champion if it was not for one defect: stability. This has been especially evident in Wijk aan Zee and Morelia/Linares, where he missed easy wins or lost unnecessarily, after playing very impressively up to that point. Apart from splendid results in Monaco (overall winner in 1992, 2nd in 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2002) his record includes victories in Linares (1989, 1991 and 1995), Tilburg in 1990, London in 1995 and Amsterdam in 1996.

Alexander Morozevich, Russia, born July 18, 1977, Elo 2721, world ranking: 11. Morozevich made his debut at the Amber in 2002, causing a sensation by winning the blindfold section with 9/11 (he had no previous experience with this form of chess) and the overall section. The following year he tied for second and then in 2004 shared overall first with Kramnik. Last year he was sole second. Morozevich is a brand-name for mind-boggling chess, ever since he made his international break-through at Lloyds Bank in 1994, where at the age of seventeen he took first prize with a staggering 10.5 out of 11 score, using unusual and outdated openings. He came fourth in the FIDE World Championship in San Luis, securing participation in the next championship in 2007. In the last Super-final of the Russian Championship Morozevich finished one point behind the winner Rublevsky, after losing a game by forfeit when he overslept and did not appear at the board.

Alexander Grischuk, Russia, born October 31, 1983, Elo 2717, world ranking: 12. Alexander Grischuk is a last-minute Monaco replacement for Vladimir Kramnik, who was prevented from attending due to health problems. Grischuk has been one of the world's leading players for some time now. He is also an outstanding team player, who's won several national championships and European Cups with the NAO Chess Club from Paris. He was also a member of the Russian team that last November won the gold medals at the World Team Championship in Israel. In recent years he has been bitten by the poker bug, which means there will be plenty of temptation for him during the Amber tournament, with the world-famous Monaco casino beckoning every night.

Francisco Vallejo, Spain, born August 21, 1982, Elo 2650, world ranking: 54. "Paco" Vallejo was born in Menorca and currently lives in Mallorca, the venue of the 2004 Chess Olympiad. He is the biggest hope of chess-crazy Spain. Vallejo became a grandmaster at the age of 16 years and 9 months (only 12 players in chess history were younger), and he became the under-18 World Champion in 2000. Among his best results are a shared first place at the 1998 Spanish championship and victories at the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba in 2001 and Dos Hermanas in 2002. More recently, a couple of months ago, he shared first place with Ponomariov in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In Morelia he won a brilliant game against World Champion Topalov, but his risky play cost him too many points in the other games.

Peter Heine Nielsen, Denmark, born May 24, 1973, Elo 2644, world ranking: 66. At 1 meter 98 cm Peter Heine is the tallest grandmaster in the world's top 100, at Elo 2644 he is Scandinavia's strongest. He won the traditional Hastings tournament in 2003 and the second European Internet championship last year, where he beat Michael Adams in the final. His break-through came in his late twenties, especially after he started working with Vishy Anand, whom he seconded in San Luis. Nielsen also trains with Norwegian wonderboy Magnus Carlsen, whom he beat in a blindfold tournament last February in Aalborg.