By IANS
New Delhi : World No. 1 Viswanathan Anand will lead a strong Indian challenge in the 2008 Corus Grandmasters chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee in the Netherlands starting next month.
For the first time, India will have at least one player in all the three groups (A, B and C) of the tournament.
Anand, rated 2801, heads the field in Group A, where the top eight player of the world will figure in the competition. The field will have total 14 players with an average rating of 2741, making it a Category 20 event.
Group B will see India’s Pentala Harikrishna (2668) and Koneru Humpy (2606) in the 14-player field, where the tournament will be Category 15 event.
In Group C, India will be represented by 15-year-old Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi (2513), the youngest in the field, and the event will be a Category 10 event.
A fourth group, called Honorary Group, will have Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Lajos Portisch, all legends and where the average rating is 2563. The event is in Category 13.
The players, their rating and categories of various groups are as follows:
Group A: Viswanathan Anand (2801), Vassily Ivanchuk (2787), Vladimir Kramnik (2785), Veselin Topalov (2769), Peter Leko (2755), Shakhryar Mamedyarov (2752), Teymour Radjabov (2742), Levon Aronian (2741), Boris Gelfand (2736), Michael Adams (2729), Magnus Carlsen (2714), Judit Polgar (2708), Pavel Eljanov (2681) and Loek van Wely (2680). Average rating: 2741. Category: 20
Group B: Etienne Bacrot (2695), Gabriel Sargissian (2673), Ivan Cheparinov (2670), Sergey Movsesian (2670), Pentala Harikrishna (2668), Michal Krasenkow (2668), Nigel Short (2649), Daniel Stellwagen (2639), Ian Nepomniachtchi (2611), Koneru Humpy (2606), Erwin l’Ami (2577), Jan Smeets (2558), Hou Yifan (2502) and Wouter Spoelman (2445). Average rating: 2617. Category: 15
Group C: Evgenij Miroshnichenko (2651), Fabiano Caruana (2594), Friso Nijboer (2559), Arik Braun (2541), Parimarjan Negi (2514), Dimitri Reinderman (2510), Efstratios Grivas (2509), John van der Wiel (2496), Anna Ushenina (2486), Pontus Carlsson (2481), Irina Krush (2475), Zhaoqin Peng (2419), Mark van der Werf (2389) and Dennis Ruijgrok (2330). Average rating: 2497. Category: 10
Honorary Group: Viktor Kortchnoi (2611), Jan Timman (2559), Ljubomir Ljubojevic (2550) and Lajos Portisch (2530). Average rating: 2563. Category: 13