Anand Gets White Against Kramnik, Topalov
By Arvind Aaron

World champion Viswanathan Anand will face Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan with the black pieces in the opening round of the Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands on Saturday.

Anand and Kramnik will start as the joint favourites in this category 20 event which has an average rating of 2742. It is a 14-player all-play-all. With Tata Steel taking over Corus last year, the Indian presence has doubled in the festival. P.Harikrishna is competing in the category 15 Grand Master Group B along with Koneru Humpy and twelve others. Young GM Parimarjan Negi of Delhi is competing in the category 11 Grand Master C Tournament.

The event features ten of the world's top 13 players. The winter festival will run from January 11-27 and be held at De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee. It is half an hour drive from Amsterdam. Anand and Kramnik havent played in a classical chess tournament in the same pool since the Indian wrested the world title from the Russian on Sep 29 at Mexico. Kramnik will have the advantage of one extra white in the 13 games.

In key games to look forward to, Anand will have white against Kramnik in the final round and also white against Topalov midway in the contest.

Anand holds several records, some of which will not be beaten even at the end of this edition. He is a record five-time winner of this event, well ahead of Max Euwe, V.Korchnoi and L.Portisch who have all won it four times each. At the end of this edition, Anand is well placed to overtake Korchnoi as the non-Dutch player to play the most games in Holland's premier pre-war event. J.Donner (Ned) has played a record 298 games.

Pairing for Saturday's round one: Kramnik v Van Wely, Radjabov v Anand, Mamedyarov v Carlsen, Eljanov v Leko, Adams v Gelfand, Aronian v Topalov, Ivanchuk v Judit Polgar.
 

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