Anand to play Jun Xu in
World Cup opener

Defending champion Vishwanathan Anand (2755) will take on Jun Xu (2643) of China in the opening match of the second World Chess Cup, which was inaugurated at the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Koneru Humpy, who has an Elo rating of 2484, is pitted against a higher-rated Nana Ioseliani (2491) of Georgia in Group 'C' in the women's section of the tournament, which gets under way on Thursday.

Following are the groupings for the league matches.

Men:
Group A: Ye Jiangchuan (China), Maeieja Bartiomeiej (Poland), Vladimir Malakhov (Russia), Giovanni Vescovi (Brazil), Saidali Iuldachev (Uzbekistan) and Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine).

Group B: Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Georgia), Sergey Rublevsky (Russia), Alex Yermolinsky (USA), Watu Kobese (South Africa), Alexey Dreev (Rus) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).

Group C: Mohamad Al Modiahki (Qatar), Hichem Hamdouchi (Mauritus), Jun Xu (Chi), Viswanathan Anand (India), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), K Sasikiran (India).

Group D: Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Jann Ehlvest (Estonia), P Harikrishna (India), Nigel Short (England) amd Alexander Beliavsky (Slovania).

Women:
Group A: Roufran Li (China), Ekaterina Kovalevskaya and Matveeva Svetiana (Russia), Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgia), Dronavalli Harika (India) and Victorja Cmilyte (Lithuania).

Group B: Antoaneta Stefenova (Bulgaria), S Vijayalakshmi and Swathi Ghate (India), Momp Khurtsidze (Georgia), Pia Cramling (Sweden), Yuhua Xu (China).

Group C: Tatiana Stepovaia Dianchenk (Russia), Koneru Humpy and ashree Thipsay (India), Irina Krush (UDA), Nana Iseliani (Georgia), Alexendra Kosteniuk (Russia).

Group D: Pin Wang and Chen Zhu (China), Aarthie Ramaswamy (India), Joanna Dworakowska (Poland), S Meenakshi (India), Peng Zhaoquin (Netherlands).