Wijk aan Zee Super-GM starts on Saturday

Wijk aan Zee 2010 – information and schedule

Wijk aan Zee 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.

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The prestigious yearly tournament 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

The average rating in Group A is almost exactly the same as in the previous year: 2719, making this a category 19 tournament. At the top is the world's highest rated player, Magnus Carlsen, followed by World Champion Viswanathan Anand and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. Hikaru Nakamura comes straight from his resounding success in the World Team Championships in Bursa, Turkey, and is good for providing interesting games. Two players from last year's Group B have moved up to the A section: Nigel Short, former World Championship challenger, and Fabiano Caruana, who at 17 is Italy's strongest ever grandmaster. Sergey Karjakin, you might remember, is the winner of last year's event.

Participants of Grandmaster Group B

Eleven players are rated over 2600, and there are three interesting youngsters in the field: Wesley So and Parimarjan Negi, both 16 years old, and Dutch champion Anish Giri, who is just 15. Anna Muzychuk, the only female in the field, is 19 and the number seven ranked women player in the world.

Participants of Grandmaster Group C

In Group C the average has dropped by 66 points, but the category is maintained. There are three female players, including the sister of Anna Muzychuk, Marya, and the eleven-times Dutch Women's Champion Zhaoqin Peng, who at 41 is the oldest player in the field. The youngest is FM Benjamin Bok, 14, followed by GM Ray Robson and IM Robin van Kampen.

Rate of play
For all three groups the rate of play is 40 moves in two hours, then 20 moves in one hour, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment per move.

Location: The tournament takes place in the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee). 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. VVV IJmond Noord, Julianaplein 13-15, 1949 AT Wijk aan Zee. Telephone: + 31 (0)251 374253. E-mail: info@vvvijmondnoord.nl Website: http://www.visitwijkaanzee.nl

Schedule (playing days)

Games begin at 13:30h local time (CET), except for the last round on January 31st, which begins at 12:30h. There are three rest days, on January 20th, 25th, and 28th.

Links

• Official web site
• ChessBase: Wijk 2009 (winner: Sergey Karjakin)
• ChessBase: Wijk 2008 (winners: Aronian, Carlsen)
• ChessBase: Wijk 2007 (winner: Teimour Radjabov)
• ChessBase: Wijk 2006 (winners: Anand, Topalov)
• ChessBase: Wijk 2005 (winner: Peter Leko)
• ChessBase: Wijk 2004 (winner: Viswanathan Anand)