Wasn't it 94 when Kasparov himself said beforehand that the winner could indeed consider himself the world champion? or maybe he said the world's best player. Words he may well have regretted as Karpov pulled away from the field.
Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Leko, Radjabov, Aronian, Shirov, Carlsen.
Carlsen was dominant at Wijk Ann Zee, coming close to beating Anand (if there were such a thing as luck in chess... his loss was definitely unlucky) and beating Kramnik with the black pieces. It will be interesting to see if he can stay in top form in Linares.
But Anand's Topalov like run at the end was impressive, he has my vote to win Linares.
Corus has barely finished and this month there is another "super tourney" called Linares ! There are 8 of the worlds top players playing in a DRR event and all of the participants in Linares also played in Corus except Shirov. Who is your favorite to win? Who do you want to win? Karpov once said of Linares that he considered it the "world championship of tournaments". His victory there in 94 with 9 wins has never been equalled, even by Kasparov !