Corus 2009: Grandmaster Group A

Nex Saturday the 71st Corus Chess Tournament takes off with the first round of the Grandmaster Groups, A, B and C. Naturally, ChessVibes will be present, during the whole tournament, to provide as much (video) coverage as possible. (And yes, that includes our famous press conferences videos!) Today we look at Grandmaster Group A - who's your favorite?

Even without Anand, Kramnik and Topalov (or perhaps because of their absence!) this year's Grandmaster Group A will be a very intesting event. There's no clear favorite, and the field is a wonderful mixture of experience and talent, and full of real fighters!18-year-old Magnus Carlsen is one of the favourites to win the 71st edition of the Corus Chess Tournament, together with routiniers Alexander Morozevich and Vassily Ivanchuk. Carlsen won the jubilee event in January this last year together with the Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian. Like Carlsen, Aronian is also one of the participants in this year's event.The two titleholders will meet Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich, as their main rivals. Ivanchuk and Morozevich had quite a successful year in 2008 and are currently ranked third and fifth in the world.Five players will make their debut in the A-group: the young Dutch grandmasters Jan Smeets and Daniel Stellwagen, the sensational Wang Yue from China, who climbed up to the 13th place on the latest world ranking list, the winner of Grandmastergroup B in 2008, Sergei Movsesian, and the flamboyant grandmaster Leinier Dominguez from Cuba (ranked 21st on the FIDE October rating list).

Link:

• Corus Chess Tournament website