The Grand Slam Of Chess

The first Grand Slam tournament in tennis, The Austalian Open begins on the 15th of this month. All Indians must be eagerly awaiting the moment when Sania Mirza blasts her way through the early rounds and hopefully go farther than any Indian women in tennis history. But most of us would not know that there is another sport in which an Indian would be participating this month with a very good chance of capturing the crown.

I am talking bout the Grand Slam tournament of Chess, the Corus Chess Championship 2007 which will begin in the quaint old town of Wijk aan Zee ( A poem on this town) in Holland, beginning on the 12th. The tournament is held every year in the second week of January and it is the custom that the best chess players of the world take part in this season opener.

This year the participants include last year's Champion and our very own Grand Master Vishwanathan Anand of India, runner up on tie-break and current world number 1, GM Veselin Topalov of bulgaria, and the current World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. They will be given company by the likes of GM Levon Aronian, GM Teymour Radjabov,GM Peter Svidler,GM Ruslan Ponomariov,GM David Navara,GM Alexey Shirov,GM Magnus Carlsen,GM Loek van Wely,GM Sergey Tiviakov,GM Sergey Karjakin and GM Alexander Motylev. This year it is a category 19 tournament with an Average Elo rating of 2719.

In last years edition Vishwanathan Anand secured an amazing win in the last round to claim the trophy on tie-breaks from the then world champion Veselin Topalov. The Indian grandmaster has an amazing record at this tournament having won it as many as 5 times beginning in 1989,1998,2003,2004 and last year. Anand is currently ranked number 2 in the world and has been quietly gearing up for this tournament. With much of the Media focus likely to be on Topalov and Kramnik, Anand may find it easier to concentrate on his chess and claim yet another victory at this tournament.

PS: Just a reminder that the Corus group, for which the Indian Steel Giant TATA and Brazilian giant CSN groups are bidding, are the title sponsors for this tournament.

Category: Articles , Chess