Haberlere dön
8 Ocak 2007
First Round of Corus 2007 Started Today
Turkish Grandmaster Suat Atalık who won Corus C group with 10.5/13 quite comfortably last year is now playing Corus B which is going to be quite challenging for the Grandmaster from İstanbul. Corus Wijk aan Zee is one of the oldest traditional tournaments which is the first "Grand Slam" event of the year. The event is between 12-28 January 2007. The sponsor of the event, which game its name, Corus is one of the largest steel companies in Europe since 2000. If GM Atalik wins this difficult group, he will be the first grandmaster to win C and B groups consecutively and qualifying for Group A, where world's strongest grandmasters are invited.
The first round of Corus Wijk aan Zee started today. GM Suat Atalık had a draw with white pieces against local youngster GM Daniel Stellwagen (2587).
Click on the link below to see earlier news about Corus, Atalik's past in Wijk aan Zee B, his thoughts about the upcoming event and the list of participants.
GM Atalık's name is quite a familiar one for the event. He also played in Group B in 1997 (Hoogovens) and he scored a +1 and finisihed at the sixth place. The event was won by Dutch GM Friso Nijboer who also won the event back in 1997. Furhermore, Atalık is a well-known host as he has been the second of Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and British GM Nigel Short.
Last week, TCF Press Officer Özgür Akman visited GM Atalik's camp in İstanbul with IM Barış Esen and asked him about his expectations from Corus. His only aim is to qualify and he sincerely replied:
"There is no difference between becoming second or the last. Daily performance and luck is very important at such level. If I were alone I would not concern myself as much as I do now since I also need to think of Katya and the baby. Technically the tournament is tournament has three big guns like Jakovenko, Eljanov and Bologan and there can by anything for the rest of the group. Furthermore, I am not a very sympathetic as child prodigies like Parimarjan Negi or Magnus Carlsen. If I do not qualify this year, I would not get an invitation for next year, even for group C unless there is a big change in my rating , which is unlikely to happen so since my rating is within certain thresholds for years. Therefore, considering Corus, this is one of my last chances."
Here is the crosstable of the event in 1997. You can reach the official web site by clicking on the link here.
Here is the most recently updated list of participants to all groups.
Corus A Av.Elo: 2719 Category:19
Title | Name | Country | B.Year | Rating | Ranking
GM | Veselin TOPALOV | BUL | 1975 | 2883 | 1
GM | Vishwanathan ANAND | IND | 1969 | 2779 | 2
GM | Vladimir KRAMNİK | RUS | 1975 | 2766 | 3
GM | Peter SVIDLER | RUS | 1976 | 2750 | 4
GM | Levon ARONIAN | ARM | 1982 | 2744 | 7
GM | Teimour RADJABOV | AZE | 1987 | 2729 | 11
GM | David NAVARA | CZE | 1985 | 2719 | 15
GM | Ruslan PONAMARIOV | UKR | 1983 | 2723 | 14
GM | Alexei SHIROV | ESP | 1972 | 2715 | 17
GM | Magnus CARLSEN | NOR | 1990 | 2690 | 24
GM | Loek VAN WELY | NED | 1972 | 2683 | 26
GM | Sergei TIVIAKOV | NED | 1973 | 2682 | 27
GM | Sergey KARJAKIN | UKR | 1990 | 2678 | 30
GM | Alexander MOTYLEV | RUS | 1979 | 2647 | 57
Participants of Corus B where GM Atalik is also participating is as follows:
Corus B Av.Elo: 2600 Category:14
Title | Name | Country | B.Year | Rating | Ranking
GM | Dmitry JAKOVENKO | RUS | 1983 | 2691 | 38
GM | Pavel ELJANOV | UKR | 1983 | 2675 | 33
GM | Gabriel SARGISSIAN | ARM | 1983 | 2658 | 46
GM | Viktor BOLOGAN | UKR | 1971 | 2658 | 46
GM | Bu XIANGZHI | CHN | 1985 | 2644 | 63
GM | Friso NIJBOER | NED | 1965 | 2638 | 74
GM | Erwin L'AMI | NED | 1985 | 2594 | 157
GM | Suat ATALIK | TUR | 1964 | 2586 | 187
GM | Daniel STELLWAGEN | NED | 1987 | 2585 | 220
GM | Maxime VACHIER-LAGRAVE | FRA | 1990 | 2573 | 234
GM | Jan WERLE | NED | 1984 | 2551 | 311
GM | Jan SMEETS | NED | 1985 | 2538 | 402
GM | Vladimir GEORGIEV | MKD | 1975 | 2525 | 498
GM | Tatiana KOSINTSEVA | RUS | 1986 | 2475 | 958
Corus C Av.Elo: 2486 Category:10
Tite | Name | Country | B.Year | Rating | Ranking
GM | Michal KRASENKOW | POL | 1963 | 2651 | 55
IM | Ian NEPOMNIACHTCHI | RUS | 1990 | 2587 | 181
GM | Emmanual BERG | SWE | 1981 | 2586 | 187
GM | Parimarjan NEGI | IND | 1993 | 2538 | 402
GM | John VAN DER WIEL | NED | 1959 | 2511 | 615
WFM | Yifan HOU | CHN | 1994 | 2509 | 635
GM | Stellan BRYNELL | SWE | 1962 | 2501 | 701
IM | Nadezhda KOSINTSEVA | RUS | 1985 | 2496 | 743
GM | Zhaoqin PENG | NED | 1968 | 2431 | 1546
GM | Harmen JONKMAN | NED | 1975 | 2425 | 1643
IM | Wouter SPOELMAN | NED | 1990 | 2414 | 1911
IM | Thomas WILLEMZE | NED | 1982 | 2393 | 2472
IM | Edwin VAN HASSTERST | NED | 1974 | 2391 | 2524
IM | Manuel BOSBOOM | NED | 1963 | 2375 | 2954
Source: Chessvista
P.S.:We would like to thank Frits Agterdenbos, Mark Crowther and Suat Atalik for their help in the preparation to this report.
