Corus C younger than ever
24 November 2009, 12.34 CET | Last modified: 11:34 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Grandmaster Group C of the Corus Chess Tournament 2010 will be younger than ever. Of the fourteen participants, eleven are not older than twenty. Favourites this year are GMs Li Chao (China), Abhijeet Gupta (India) and Ray Robson (USA). All participants of GM groups A, B and C have now been confirmed.
Due to the financial crisis the continuation of Grandmaster Group C was in doubt for a while, but in September it was given the green light by main sponsor Corus. As always, the winner will promote to Grandmaster Group B next year.
The youngest participant this year is Dutch FM Benjamin Bok (14); the oldest is 11-times Dutch Women Champion GM Zhaoqin Peng (41). Reigning Dutch champion under 20 IM Robin van Kampen (15) was also invited, as well as Soumya Swaminathan from India, who won the World Junior Championship for girls (U-20) in Argentina last month.
Both Muzychuk sisters are coming to Wijk aan Ze this year. The strongest, Anna, who represents the chess federation of Slovenia, is participant of Grandmaster Group B. Maryia, who still has ‘UKR’ behind her name, plays in group C.
On October 15th we already brought you the names of Grandmaster Groups A & B. Below we give them once more, together with the C Group. The 72nd Corus Chess Tournament takes places Jarnuary 15-31 2010 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. And yes, ChessVibes will be there again to bring daily coverage!
Corus Chess Tournament 2010 | Participants Grandmaster Group A
Corus Chess Tournament 2010 | Participants Grandmaster Group B
Corus Chess Tournament 2010 | Participants Grandmaster Group C
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Looks like a nice C group this year. Nothing wrong with a lot of young players; it keeps the costs low, and it is interesting to see the future top-players in action.
Looking forward to it again. And since it takes me only 20 minutes with the car to get there, I will be there a few days, like every year.
Strange that Robin van Kampen is dutch champion under 20, while the national champion Anish Giri is also aged below 20.
Looks to be a great tournament with this line-up.
I think you erroneously switched a 6 with a 7 in Ray Robson’s rating. He’s currently at his peak rating 2567. Moreover, the ratings in the A and B groups are outdated. They do not match the ratings as mentioned at the Corus site.
At the moment, it’s confusing that the ratings of the A and B group do not match those of the C group. For example, I saw this topic and one of my first thoughts was: “Huh, has Ray Robson surpassed Anish Giri in the 1994 age group?”
Indeed, corrected.
Chess wise, it’s been really great lately. Corus has been my favorite for a long time, only matched by Tal memorial this year. Yes, there are many more great tournaments such as Linares, but I really like the fact that Corus invites so many players of all (excellent) standings by means of three divisions. Despite the economic downturn, we have been enjoying great chess lately, and I am happy that there seems to be no off-season. Thanks ChessVibes for excellent coverages. I also appreciate your willingness to report honestly about some issues that might not be agreed by everyone. It’s a good journalism.
Where’s Topalov and Cheparinov?
Topalov will not play against Anand till WCh match.
Plukkel is going to get his ass kicked by a couple of brats and a granny;)
Plukkel (and Kuipers) probably qualified from the highest amateur group, playing on the stage and getting some sort of VIP treatment will probably be a (once in a lifetime?) experience for both. Then it is OK to lose a few or many games – and they know beforehand.
No time to check when it happened, but at one occasion two Dutch players scored 0.5/13 in the C group – drawing each other and losing the rest.
I hope Sjoerd will surprise a couple of those players in the C-group! I am very curious to see how Giri will perform in the B-group, and Smeets in the A!
@Thomas: Etmans!?
Yes, its very nice for them to play in C but if I would play there I would have a hard time explaining to my friends, who don’t play chess, why I’m not winning against all these little punks;)
@Rob: I would flat out try to throw it on some kind of generic disease. People will be likely to believe that anyone who can sit still behind a board for a couple of hours has some kind of defect at birth
@Rob Schoorl: Yes, Etmans and Barendse – back in 2004, how time flies … (Etmans actually got another draw against Zhaoqin Peng). “Runner-up” is Dennis Ruijgrok (2/13 in 2008) – in both cases, the tailenders were at least 100 points lower-rated than the top12 of the field, so Plukkel’s chances seem to be a bit better!?
@Thomas, did you see Sjoerd beat Siebrecht, just this week? Seems he could do allright
I didn’t say Sjoerd Plukkel would “get his ass kicked”, Rob Schoorl did – I don’t even know him, neither as a person nor as a chess player. If rating and titles mean anything, he is the outsider (particularly as young players tend to be a bit underrated), so what? He qualified from this year’s top amateur group, so he _earned_ his right to be on the stage next time.
I know Sjoerd very well so I can say that kind of things;)
Sjoerd has kicked my ass several times. I wonder what that would make me…