The Hindu : Sport : Anand's chance to make history

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 14, 2005

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Anand's chance to make history

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 13. Viswanathan Anand will be looking to make history in the prestigious Corus chess tournament that opens here on Saturday. The World No. 2 is aiming for an unprecedented fifth title to break away from the pack of four-time winners like Max Euwe, Lajos Portisch and Victor Korchnoi.

Anand heads an awesome field of 14 players, including eight from the world's top-10 list, and has a chance to become the first to win three successive Category 19 titles in the traditional season-opener. With the average rating of the players being 2721, this will be the strongest field in the 67-year-old tournament, known as the Hoogovens event until Corus took over in 2000.

Joint winner in 1989 and 1998, Anand emerged outright winner in the last two editions and, on both occasions, went on to dominate the chess world for the remainder of the season. A similar start this fortnight will consolidate Anand's position as the strongest tournament player in the world.

"It'll be great to win a third straight time and for a fifth time in all," was what Anand said in Chennai last month.

As in the past three years, World No. 1 and three-time winner Garry Kasparov has given this event a miss. The last time Kasparov and Anand played here was in 2001 and they finished winner and runner-up, in that order.

Since May 2002, Anand has had an almost flawless run in tournaments, both in classical and rapid versions of the game.

Topalov main rival

In this 13-round all-play-all format, Anand is likely to be tested by Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian who knocked out Vladimir Kramnik from the world's top-three bracket this month. Anand has made no secret of his desire to improve his record against Topalov and without doubt, their clash will globally attract the attention of the chess lovers.

Peter Leko, the man who almost took away the world title from Kramnik last October, and Alexander Morozevich are among those capable of winning here.

Negi for Corus `C'

Meanwhile, for once, there will be Indian interest in the Corus `C' tournament, to be played concurrently.

Parimarjan Negi, the world under-12 bronze medallist and the youngest Indian ever to make an International Master norm, will get a chance to play in a 14-player field and make his second norm. The field, headed by Russian GM Evgeny Alekseev, has an average rating of 2422. Negi's rating is 2316 and only two players are rated below him in the competition. With Russian coach GM Ruslan Sherbakov for company, young Negi stands to gain a lot from this opportunity. Not surprisingly, he is the youngest Indian ever to be invited to play here. P. Hari Krishna and Koneru Humpy have played in Corus `B'.

"I'll be happy if I make a norm. Also, I am looking forward to meeting Anand during the fortnight," said a modest Negi, adding that he was well prepared to face the strongest field of his budding career.

The players (14): Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 2786), Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2757), Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2754), Peter Leko (Hun, 2749), Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2741), Michael Adams (Eng, 2741), Peter Svidler (Rus, 2735), Judit Polgar (Hun, 2738), Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2710), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 2700), Ivan Solokov (Ned, 2685), Loek van Wely (Ned, 2679), Nigel Short (Eng, 2674) and Lazaro Brozon (Cub, 2652).

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