Corus facts and figures

15 January 2009, 14.25 CET | Last modified: 16:36 | By Peter Doggers  | Filed under: Reports | Tags:

As we’re approaching the wonderful festival in that small Dutch coastal town, we’re probably as excited as you are. Today some facts and figures about the oldest-but-one chess tournament in the world.

The Corus Chess Tournament 2009 will be held from 16 January – 1 February 2009 in Wijk aan Zee. The tournament venue is the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee) and the nearby bar de Zon.

Invitation tournaments
The Corus Chess Tournament has three main tournaments. They are played according to the ’round robin’ system, whereby each competitor plays in turn against every other during the tournament. All three Grandmaster groups have 14 players and start on January 17th. All rounds begin at 13.30 hours, except for the last round on February 1st, which begins at 12.30 hours. There are rest days: on January 21st, 26th, and 29th.

Amateur events
There are four amateur events during the Corus Chess Tournament, that are open for all players: Weekend-three-round events (16-18 January), Weekday-three-round-events (19-21 January), Nine-round events (23 January – 1 February) and the Rapid Tournament (24-25 January).

Special groups
More than 10 special groups are playing their own CCT, especially in the first and second weekend of the tournament. A.o. journalists, members of the Dutch parliament and local politicians are invited by the organisation for these special groups.

Schedule

(Click for bigger version)

Statistics
Viswanathan Anand has won most tournaments in Wijk aan Zee than anyone else: five. He’s followed by Max Euwe, Viktor Kortchnoi and Lajos Portisch, who all won four editions. Most games were played by Donner (298!), then Jan Timman (260) and third is Hans Ree (258). The most succesful player was Arnold van den Hoek (the Dutchman scored 5.5 out of 7, a percentage of 78.57, in the year 1943). He’s followed by Boris Spassky (11 out of 15 in 1967 – 73.33%), Lev Polugaevsky (19 out of 26 in 1966 and 1979 – 73.08%) and then Garry Kasparov (28.5 out of 39 in 1999, 2000 and 2001 – 73.08%). The most drawish player was Petar Trifunovic, who scored 14 out of 26 with a drawing percentage of 84.62%! He did win the 1962 event though. The tournament website has much more statistics available.

Previous winners

Hoogovens, Beverwijk

1938 – Philip Bakker
1939 – Nicolaas Cortlever
1940 – Max Euwe
1941 – Arthur Wijnans
1942 – Max Euwe
1943 – Arnold van den Hoek
1944 – Theo van Scheltinga
1945 – no tournament
1946 – Alberic O’Kelly de Galway
1947 – Theo van Scheltinga
1948 – Lodewijk Prins
1949 – Savielly Tartakower
1950 – Jan Hein Donner
1951 – Herman Pilnik
1952 – Max Euwe
1953 – Nicolas Rossolimo
1954 – Hans Bouwmeester and Vasja Pirc
1955 – Bora Milic
1956 – Gideon Stahlberg
1957 – Aleksandar Matanovic
1958 – Max Euwe and Jan Hein Donner
1959 – Fri??rik ?ìlafsson
1960 – Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian
1961 – Bent Larsen and Borislav Ivkov
1962 – Petar Trifunovic
1963 – Jan Hein Donner
1964 – Paul Keres and Iivo Nei
1965 – Lajos Portisch and Efim Geller
1966 – Lev Polugaevsky
1967 – Boris Spassky

Hoogovens, Wijk aan Zee

1968 – Viktor Korchnoi
1969 – Mikhail Botvinnik and Efim Geller
1970 – Mark Taimanov
1971 – Viktor Korchnoi
1972 – Lajos Portisch
1973 – Mikhail Tal
1974 – Walter Browne
1975 – Lajos Portisch
1976 – Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Fri??rik ?ìlafsson
1977 – Genna Sosonko and Efim Geller
1978 – Lajos Portisch
1979 – Lev Polugaevsky
1980 – Walter Browne and Yasser Seirawan
1981 – Genna Sosonko and Jan Timman
1982 – John Nunn and Yuri Balashov
1983 – Ulf Andersson
1984 – Alexander Beliavsky and Viktor Korchnoi
1985 – Jan Timman
1986 – Nigel Short
1987 – Nigel Short and Viktor Korchnoi
1988 – Anatoly Karpov
1989 – Viswanathan Anand, Predrag Nikolic, Zoltan Ribli and Gyula Sax
1990 – John Nunn
1991 – John Nunn
1992 – Boris Gelfand and Valery Salov
1993 – Anatoly Karpov
1994 – Predrag Nikolic
1995 – Alexey Dreev
1996 – Vassily Ivanchuk
1997 – Valery Salov
1998 – Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand
1999 – Garry Kasparov
2000 – Garry Kasparov
2001 – Garry Kasparov

Corus Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee

2002 – Evgeny Bareev
2003 – Viswanathan Anand
2004 – Viswanathan Anand
2005 – P?©ter L?©k??
2006 – Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand
2007 – Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov and Veselin Topalov
2008 – Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen

Best games
Both of the following games have been called the “Pearl of Wijk aan Zee” and will never bore us to replay once again:

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