WIJK AAN ZEE, JANUARY 13: FOUR-TIME champion, Viswanathan Anand who narrowly missed winning last year’s edition will begin as one of the favourites for the Corus 2006 which gets underway on Saturday in this tiny town of Wijk Aan Zee, a hour’s drive from Amsterdam. Anand was second to Peter Leko in 2005, but with Leko’s form having taken a noticeable dip, The NIIT Brand Ambassador, Anand’s main rival will be Veselin Topalov, who had a great 2005, when he also won the World Championships in Argentina.

The Corus Grandmasters tournament has been a favourite hunting ground for Anand, who has never finished below second since1996. He has won the title four times in this period and last year narrowly missed on making it a hat-trick, after having won the 2003 and 2004 editions.

Anand, who has also placed Corus as his favourite event, said, “Corus is the curtain on every chess calendar year. It is a world class event organised very professionally. It is easily the strongest 14 player event. The field is varied annually, so it makes it exciting to play the new faces all the time. And for me, the atmosphere at the tournamenthall is really very special. Of course it can get windy and chilly but that’s part of the Corus charm.”
Vladimir Kramnik , who was seeded fourth, dropped out at the last minute. His performance at the Russian Championships was poor and indeed he look totally off colour Rising star 20-year-old Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was named as his replacement.

On his website, he also made a statement, which he also sent to the organsiers, saying “I would like to inform the chess community that due to health problems I shall not be able to participate in the Corus Chess Tournament 2006. A couple of years ago a form of arthritis was diagnosed. This disease causes painful inflammation in the joints. Unfortunately since that time, the symptoms have started to appear more often and with greater severity. A new recent crises makes it necessary to undertake serious clinical treatment. Solving the present problem within a few months will allow me to come back and enjoy competitive chess at the highest level. I want to stress clearly, that – as always – I am eager to continue and enhance my chess career. There are still many goals to achieve.”

India will have a second entry in Koneru Humpy in the ‘B’ Division. Humpy rated 2537 is among the 14 players, whose average rating is 2602. A good performance here will get Humpy some valuable elo points.

The following is the field with countries and ratings mentioned alongside for the Main event.

Topalov, Veselin BUL 2801, Anand, Viswanathan IND 2792, Aronian, Levon ARM 2752, Leko, Peter HUN 2740, Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2729, Gelfand, Boris ISR 2723, Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2717, Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2709, Adams, Michael ENG 2707, Sokolov, Ivan NED 2689, Kamsky, Gata USA 2686, Tiviakov, Sergei NED 2669, Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2660, Van Wely, Loek NED 2647. Average: 2716