Waiting for Wijk

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So who will win?

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

Participants

• Tournament web site
• Corus web site
• Where is Wijk aan Zee
• Wijk aan Zee 2004 reports
• Wijk aan Zee 2005 reports

Visions of Wijk

By Fred Lucas

The industrial seaside resort of Wijk aan Zee

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

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

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