Corus Won't Bore Us

The famous annual tournament held in the small Dutch seaside town of Wijk aan Zee, better known simply as 'Corus' after the longstanding sponsor, will play host to another feast of top-quality chess in January 2009.

First the bad news - Anand, Kramnik and Topalov declined their invitations.  Disappointed?  You shouldn't be, because the remaining line-up is so full of crowd-pleasing favourites that their absence is easily forgotten.  The confirmed field for the prestigious 'A Group' is:

If we are going to be picky, it might have been nice to see one less local player (no offence to Van Wely, Stellwagen and Smeets) and instead have someone like Nakamura in their place, but Kamsky will be flying the flag alone for the USA.  Also, since Anand is absent it might have been nice to see Sasikiran representing India, especially now that Corus is a subsidiary of the giant Indian company Tata Steel.

The tournament is a single round robin which runs from 16 Jan - 1 Feb and the time controls will be 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in an hour, and finally 15 minutes plus a 30 second/move increment to finish the game.  The participants in the B and C Groups should be announced soon.

The official website is here.  Look out for coverage at Chess.com!