Corus 2009: So top seed in group C; Morozevich in group A; Sasikiran in group B

Bigger, tougher tournaments for 2009

GM Wesley So will be competing in his first major tournament for 2009, the group C of the prestigious Corus Chess Tournament that will take place in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands from January 16th to February 1st, 2009. He'll be the top seed in the group. According to the tournament official website all Grandmaster groups have been completed. Among the favorite to win the group A are defending champion Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen and the ever dangerous, Alexander Morozevich and Vasily Ivanchuk. Some of the biggest names in chess opted to skip the tournament for various reasons. Current world champion Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Vaselin Topalov are just some of the name chess fans will be missing in the 71st edition of the tournament next year.

Back to group C. I like Wesley's chances. Wesley has already met 2nd seed GM David Howell before and Wesley wins both matches they fought in surprisingly easy fashion. Current world junior champion, GM Gupta is another player that is favorite to win the group. Former Ukranian number one player GM Oleg Romanishin will also see action in group C. GM Fabiano Caruana won the group C early this year but he will be competing in group B this January.

Grandmastergroup C

No.		Name		Country		Rating		Born
1		GM Wesley So		Philippines		2610		1993
2		GM David Howell		England		2593		1990
3		GM Abhijeet Gupta		India		2580		1989
4		GM Tiger Hillarp Persson		Sweden		2543		1970
5		GM Friso Nijboer		The Netherlands		2540		1965
6		GM Eduardo Iturrizaga		Venezuela		2538		1989
7		IM Manuel Leon Hoyos		Mexico		2535		1989
8		GM Oleg Romanishin		Ukraine		2532		1952
9		GM Frank Holzke		Germany		2524		1971
10		FM Anish Giri		Russia		2466		1994
11		WGM Dronavalli Harika		India		2462		1991
12		IM Roeland Pruijssers		The Netherlands		2458		1989
13		IM Manuel Bosboom		The Netherlands		2416		1963
14		FM Ali Bitalzadeh		The Netherlands		2370		1989

Average rating: 2512
Category: 11

Participants grandmaster group A

Name Country Rating Position

GM Alexander Morozevich RUS 2787 2
GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2786 3-4
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2786 3-4
GM Levon Aronian ARM 2757 7
GM Teymour Radjabov AZE 2751 8
GM Wang Yue CHN 2736 11
GM Michael Adams ENG 2734 12
GM Sergei Movsesian SVK 2732 13
GM Sergei Karjakin UKR 2730 15
GM Gata Kamsky USA 2729 16
GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2719 21
GM Loek van Wely NED 2618
GM Daniel Stellwagen NED 2605
GM Jan Smeets NED 2604

Average rating : 2720
Category : 19

Participants grandmaster group B

Name Country Rating Position

GM Krishnan Sasikiran IND 2694 35
GM Zahar Efimenko UKR 2680 41
GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2672 49-50
GM Alexander Motylev RUS 2672 49-50
GM Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2664 55
GM Andrei Volokitin UKR 2659 61
GM Nigel Short ENG 2642 85
GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2640 87
GM David Navara CZE 2633 99
GM Erwin l'Ami NED 2610
GM Jan Werle NED 2582
WGM Hou Yifan CHN 2578
GM Henrique Mecking BRA 2567
GM Dimitri Reinderman NED 2543

Average rating : 2631
Category : 16