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The Corus Chess Tournament 2006 will be held from 13-29 January 2006 in Wijk aan Zee, Holland. The tournament venue is the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee) and the nearby bar de Zon. Commentary will be available in the Corus Chess Pavilion, on the Village Green in Wijk aan Zee (one minute walking from De Moriaan).
The secret of the Corus tournament is that, unlike other Super-GM events, it is not restricted to a small number of very high-ranked players, who may raise the category but often dampen the chess. In Wijk there is a wider range of playing strengths, which on the one hand give new and exciting young talents a chance to battle it out with the world's best players. On the other hand this mixture is a fair guarantee for exciting, slug-it-out chess.
Veselin Topalov, top seed at the Corus tournament
The tournament is played in three groups. Naturally the GM Group A will command the greatest attention, especially since it is the first time that freshly-crowned world champion Veselin Topalov will be taking on his colleagues since his remarkable victory in San Luis.
Vishy Anand, who will be going for gold in Wijk
Indian superstar and former FIDE world champion Vishy Anand will be out to prove that he can stand up to Topalov, who beat him by a point and a half in San Luis. Anand will also be looking to pick up the few rating points he needs to cross 2800.
Peter Leko, the winner of Wijk aan Zee 2005
Hungarian GM Peter Leko is the defending champion in Wijk. He dropped a fair number of rating points in San Luis and will be eager to get them back in this event. He also has some open accounts to settle with some of his GM colleagues in Wijk.
Junior world champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Originally Vladimir Kramnik was scheduled to play in the A-Group. However, this week he had to cancel his appearance due to a chronic illness that has plagued him for a while now. As a replacement the organisers have invited the freshly crowned world junior champion, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. At 20 and with a rating of 2709 (number 15 in the world) "Shak" is one of the hottest commodities around today.
Once again we are going to test the precognitive powers of our readers. We are asking you to guess who the top three at Corus 2006 in Group A are going to be. Send us your predictions before the start of the event on January 13, and you can win a valuable prize – most likely a copy of Fritz signed by the three winners you have predicted.
Use the feedback form given below. Since we expect a very large number of replies we will be reading the feedback automatically, with a utility that also does a statistical evaluation. But for this to succeed we need you to adhere to certain conventions: use only the last name of the players, spell the names correctly, and give the score separated by a blank from the name. You can add remarks at the end, but keep these relatively brief.
The competition has now closed
No. | Name | Title | Country |
Rating | Rank |
01 | Veselin Topalov | GM | BUL |
2801 | 2 |
02 | Viswanathan Anand | GM | IND |
2792 | 3 |
03 | Levon Aronian | GM | ARM |
2752 | 5 |
04 | Peter Leko | GM | HUN |
2740 | 7 |
05 | Vassily Ivanchuk | GM | UKR |
2729 | 8 |
06 | Boris Gelfand | GM | ISR |
2723 | 9 |
07 | Etienne Bacrot | GM | FRA |
2717 | 12 |
08 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | GM | AZE |
2709 | 15 |
09 | Michael Adams | GM | ENG |
2707 | 17 |
10 | Ivan Sokolov | GM | NED |
2689 | 24 |
11 | Gata Kamsky | GM | USA |
2686 | 25 |
12 | Sergey Tiviakov | GM | NED |
2669 | 33 |
13 | Sergey Karjakin | GM | UKR |
2660 | 42 |
14 | Loek van Wely | GM | NED |
2647 | 59 |
Average
rating: 2716 – Category: 19 |
No. | Name | Title | Country |
Rating | Rank |
01 | David Navara | GM | CZE |
2660 | 42 |
02 | Arkadij Naiditsch | GM | GER |
2657 | 46 |
03 | Zoltan Almasi | GM | HUN |
2646 | 60 |
04 | Alexander Motylev | GM | RUS |
2638 | 69 |
05 | Giovanni Vescovi | GM | BRA |
2633 | 77 |
06 | Alexander Beliavsky | GM | SLO |
2626 | 89 |
07 | Magnus Carlsen | GM | NOR |
2625 | 90 |
08 | Ivan Cheparinov | GM | BUL |
2625 | 90 |
09 | Baadur Jobava | GM | GEO |
2614 | 108 |
10 | Daniel Stellwagen | GM | NED |
2573 | 211 |
11 | Erwin L’Ami | IM | NED |
2550 | 301 |
12 | Jan Smeets | GM | NED |
2550 | 301 |
13 | Koneru Humpy | GM | IND |
2537 | 363 |
14 | Kateryna Lahno | IM | UKR |
2500 | 653 |
Average
rating: 2602 – Category: 15 |
No. | Name | Title | Country |
Rating | Rank |
01 | Suat Atalik | GM | TUR |
2618 | 101 |
02 | Klaus Bischoff | GM | GER |
2560 | 250 |
03 | Li Shilong | IM | CHN |
2543 | 322 |
04 | Jan Werle | GM | NED |
2514 | 528 |
05 | John van der Wiel | GM | NED |
2505 | 606 |
06 | Yge Visser | IM | NED |
2485 | 806 |
07 | Ahmed Adly | GM | EGY |
2473 | 907 |
08 | Harmen Jonkman | GM | NED |
2470 | 939 |
09 | Karel van der Weide | GM | NED |
2466 | 988 |
10 | Cyril Marcelin | GM | FRA |
2441 | 1303 |
11 | Kateryna Atalik | WGM | TUR |
2399 | 2210 |
12 | Yochanan Afek | GM | ISR |
2370 | 3013 |
13 | Pieter Hopman | - | NED |
2332 | 4323 |
14 | Marlies Bensdorp | WIM | NED |
2230 | 10826 |
Average
rating: 2458 – Category: 9 |
The industrial seaside resort of Wijk aan Zee
Actually Wijk is a small quiet village
The erection of the "tent" foir the opening ceremony and commentary
Hotel Zeeduin, where most of the players stay
The rooms of the Zeeduin, where the players sleep and prepare
Even in Winter there are people who go for a swim
Topalov in front of the Moriaan playing hall
Inside the Moriaan, which is currently being used for other sports
The playing hall when the Corus tournament is under way
Levon Aronian, the surprise winner of Khanty-Mansiysk
Magnificent Magnus Carlsen, just 15 and well over 2600
Vassily Ivanchuk, the veteran chess genius
Loek van Wely, the local boy Dutch hero
At 14 Sergey Karjakin won the B-Group and is now playing in with the A's
Young Dutch hopeful Daniel Stellwagen (18, GM, 2573)
A bowl of the trademark Wijk peasoup
All pictures copyright Fred Lucas of Momentoo Photography