Wijk aan Zee 2008 starts on Saturday

Live Commentary on Playchess

Before we go into the details of this exciting tournament – Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, for crying out loud – we would like to inform you about live coverage on Playchess.com. We start off on Saturday with a special treat: former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov will be kicking off with live audio and video commentary. Chess fans who have bought Kasimdzhanov's DVDs know how entertaining, eloquent and instructive this Grandmaster's commentary can be.

Rustam, here with IM Oliver Reeh, doing live audio and video commentary during the World Championship in Mexico. That was in German. The commentary for Wijk aan Zee will be in English.

The games start at 13:30h Royal Dutch time (you can translate this to your own time zone here). There will be about three one-hour broadcasts, beginning approximately thirty minutes after play has started. For a charge of ten Ducats (about one Euro) a visitor gets a twelve hour pass to listen to the live lectures.

Ducats are the currency used on Playchess.com. You can purchase Ducats here. The amount will be credited to your playchess.com account. You need to allow one working day for processing. If you want your Ducats immediately you can order them using our Click&Buy service. Ducats can also be used to buy ChessBase products. Note that you can also purchase Ducats directly from Fritz or the Playchess client using the menu "Edit – Payments – Fill up account". This takes you to a special purchase page with your account name automatically passed on, to simplify the process.

Starting from next week GM Yasser Seirawan will be taking over with live commentary.

Wijk aan Zee 2008 – information and schedule

Wijk aan Zee (pronounced: whyk aahn zeh) is a small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious yearly Corus tournament, formerly called Hoogovens, takes place in three Grandmaster Groups. There are also a number of amateur groups taking part at the same time. The three Grandmaster tournaments have 14 players each and are round robins (each competitor plays against every other).

Participants of Grandmaster Group A

Participants of Grandmaster Group B

Participants of Grandmaster Group C

Location: The tournament takes place in the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee) and the nearby bar de Zon. There is running commentary on the games of the Grandmaster Groups in a special Chess Pavilion, on the Village Green in Wijk aan Zee (one minute walk from De Moriaan).

Accommodation: For information contact the local Tourist Office. Stichting Toerisme Wijk aan Zee
Julianaplein 13-15, 1949 AT Wijk aan Zee. Telephone: + 31 (0)251 374253. E-mail: vvvwijkaanzee@ncn.nl Website: http://www.visitwijkaanzee.nl

Playing days in January 2008

Games begin at 13:30h local time (CET), except for the last round on January 28th, which begins at 12:30h (Grandmaster group C starts at 11:30h hours in the last round). There are three rest days, on January 17th, 22nd, and 25th.

Schedule and pairings of Grandmaster Group A

Schedule and pairings of Grandmaster Group B

Schedule and pairings of Grandmaster Group C

Impressions of the opening

Players and photographers – Humpy and Fred Lucas – leave the De Moriaan hall to
take a bus trip to the opening ceremony

GM Efstratios Grivas of Greece with World Champion Vishy Anand

GMs Nigel Short and Michael Adams (in the background Koneru Humpy and father)

During the drawing of colours at the opening ceremony

Chocolate chess pieces at the opening ceremony buffet, with a black bishop and
knight reversed, as a number of readers informed us (they see EVERYthing)

Even the cake is made in the form of a chess set – but the kings and queens are not...
ah well, the corner square is right, and it is the thought that counts.

We received the above pictures from GM Efstratios Grivas with the message "A present. I hope that you like it!" (yes we do, Stratos!). The pictures were taken with an Olympus µ740, a popular camera in Greece.

Wijk aan Zee Preview – the Day Before

Photo report by Frits Agterdenbos

Entering Wijk aan Zee: banner announcing the tournament

Playing venue Community Centre De Moriaan

Entrance of playing venue De Moriaan

Playing hall under construction

Red and black are the dominating colors in the playing hall

The Chess Pavilion (commentary room) with the Corus Chess Lane

The Voorstraat in Wijk aan Zee

• Live coverage with commentary by GMs Rustam Kasimdzhanov and
  Yasser Seirawan is available on the Playchess server.
• Official web site