The Corus Supertournament Preview

The Corus supertournament, which begins Saturday January 13 (at 18.30 IST) at the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands), could well qualify as the strongest tournament of all time.

The field of 14 includes the nine top-ranked players in the world --the only absentee from the top ten being Boris Gelfand. In fact, there has never been a tournament in recorded history that included all top-ten players.

Here is a checklist of the contenders:

Viswanathan Anand: With an ELO rating of 2790, just inches away from the coveted cachet of becoming only the second player in the world to top the 2800 mark, Anand comes into the tournament as the reigning FIDE world champion. Anand had a good 2000, winning the World Cup, the world blitz title, and the FIDE world title -- which puts the onus on him now, and makes him the player everyone else wants to beat.

Vladimir Kramnik: Like Anand, Kramnik has a world title. Unlike Anand, who holds the official one, Kramnik is the Brain Games world champion. He says he is ready for a challenge round against Anand, in a bid to unify the two world titles. At this point, the Russian super GM, with an ELO rating of 2772, is on a roll, having beaten the unbeatable Kasparov in a title fight, then gone on to outplay Peter Leko in a rapid chess exhibition series. He has points to prove, and to prove those points will involve a radical change of playing style for the man they say is easy to draw against, but almost impossible to beat.

Garry Kasparov: When was the last time Garry Kasparov entered a world class event without the tag of being world champion? Title or not, the Russian has a massive 2849 points on the ELO scale, highest ever in the world and way ahead of his contemporaries. He hates to be number two -- and now that both Kramnik and Anand have titles to their names, will be anxious to show them who is boss.

Alexei Shirov: The Spaniard, with an ELO rating of 2718, was the finalist in the FIDE title bout, which climaxed a very busy year for him. Loves to take chances -- which, more often than not, get him into hot water but also make him a huge favourite with tournament audiences fed up of the theoretically sound play of the superstars.

Peter Leko: The Hungarian, with 2745 ELO against his name, hasn't done much of note in recent times, losing to Alexander Khalifman in the third round of the FIDE world championship bout in New Delhi in December 2000, then losing against to Kramnik in a rapid chess exhibition match. One thing, though, merits mention -- in Round 3, Game 1 of their 12-match bout, Leko tested Kramnik in a Main Line Hedgehog and came up with a superb endgame to punish an over-ambitious Kramnik -- a win that needs to be seen in context of the fact that Kasparov failed to defeat Kramnik even once in their title fight. He is young, hungry, and dangerous -- the floater in this tournament.

Michael Adams: Given a choice between preparing for the next game and partying, Adams (2746 ELO) alone among the top grandmasters will tend to chose the latter option. The English GM, however, has a natural flair and brilliance that makes up for his lack of preparation and his overly casual attitude to competition. Semifinalist at the FIDE knockout tournament in Delhi, Adams lost to Anand at that stage. At one time considered a potential world champion -- now seen as a player who will remain in the top ten, but who does not have the drive to make a push for the highest honour.

Alexander Morozevich: The Russian (ELO 2745) lost in the fourth round in Delhi. Very talented, very young, and seen as one of the coming names in world chess. Expert opinion is that any time now, he will start threatening the world leaders.

Vassily Ivanchuk: The Ukranian (2717) has been around for a while, without ever actualising on his promise. A highly unstable player, Ivanchuk at his best is a calm, confident demolisher of defences and reputations, and at his worst, a bundle of nerves prone to the most elementary errors. It is pretty much anyone's guess which Ivanchuk we will see in Corus.

Veselin Topalov: The Bulgarian (2718) was a name to reckon with in the early and mid 1990s, then faded away for some inexplicable reason. Lately, though, his performances have indicated that he is on the comeback trail -- and if he begins playing at or near his best, he can be dangerous even to the top three.

That is the top nine for you. An ongoing poll on Rediff gives 203 votes (48 per cent of all respondents) to Anand as the player most likely to win, followed by 179 votes to Kasparov and 29 to Kramnik. 4 voters figured that the winner could be some other player.

But frankly, patriotism is responsible for that particular voting pattern -- on form, the odds will favour Kasparov, with either Kramnik or Anand tipped, at best, to share top spot with 'Gazza'.