WIJK AAN ZEE, JANUARY 13: Viswanathan Anand will open his Corus Grandmasters Chess campaign with black pieces against Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov in the opening round on Sunday. Anand, seeded second behind Veselin Topalov will play seven of his 13 games with black and have white in six other games.

In Group C, Parimarjan Negi (2538) will play with white pieces with local player, Wouter Spoelman (2414). Negi is the fourth highest rated player in Group C.

The NIIT sponsored Anand leads Ponomariov 7-1 in terms of decisive games and the duo has met 20 times with 12 games havng been drawn. Anand’s only loss to the Ukrainian came in 2003 at the Cape D’Agde tournament in France. In the two clashes in M-Tel Masters in Sofia, Anand won with white and drew with black against Ponmariov.

Negi incidentally is being coached by Elizbar Ubilava, the former coach of Anand.