By IANS
Netherlands : Viswanathan Anand takes on last year’s joint-champion Teimour Radjabov in what will be a landmark edition of the Corus Grandmasters chess tournament from an Indian point of view this year. This is the first tournament after the Corus was taken over by one of India’s biggest business groups, Tatas.
Anand, who has won five titles here, will be keen win again as the tournament that started Saturday will have an Indian flavour to it. This is the 70th year of the annual Dutch treat which sees an elite field of 14, including eight of the world’s top ten grandmasters. At an average rating of 2742 it is one of the five strongest tournaments ever.
Anand has drawn black pieces against Radjabov while his archrival, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, takes on Hungarian Judit Polgar, the world’s strongest woman player.
Anand has beaten Radjabov nine times in 22 meetings and lost four times. The four losses have just one in classical chess in 2003 at Dortmund, the year Anand had a nightmarish outing.
Last year, Anand beat Radjabov twice in the rapid games at Chess Classic of Mainz, a tournament where Anand had beaten the youngster four times in 2006. But Anand’s last classical win over Radjabov came in Linares in 2003.
Anand and Kramnik, who are joint leaders in world elo rating at 2799, are due to meet in the last round of the 14-player tournament, which concludes Jan 27.
Chess at the top in the past year and a half has been especially topsy-turvy.
Anand, a top-notch chess player for over a decade and a half, is the reigning world champion, having won at Mexico world championship ahead of Kramnik. Barring Bulgarian Veseilin Topalov, all top guns were there.
Topalov, once seen as a major challenger to Anand and Kramnik, has gone out of the frame, but he is on a comeback trail.
A resurgent Kramnik is looking the player he was when he beat Garry Kasparov.
A rash of young players like Lev Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen have hit the world chess scene and this bunch is making a great impact.
The venue for the world’s best-known tournament, Wjik Aan Zee, is a cold wind-swept small town on the coast of the North Sea, in North Holland.
The field is: 1. Viswanathan Anand (India), 2. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), 3. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), 4. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), 5. Peter Leko (Hungary), 6. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 7. Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), 8. Levon Aronian (Armenia), 9. Boris Gelfand (Israel), 10. Michael Adams (England), 11. Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 12. Judit Polgar (Hungary), 13. Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), and 14. Loek van Wely (Holland).
Pairings for the first round: Kramnik v van Wely; Radjabov v Anand; Mamedyarov v Carlsen; Eljanov v Leko; Adams v Gelfand; Aronian v Topalov; Ivanchuk v Polgar