Two replacements at Corus

There have been two mutations in the grandmaster groups of the Corus Chess Tournament. In Grandmaster group B Alexandra Kosteniuk (ill) was replaced by GM Viorel (a.k.a. Viktor) Bologan from Moldavia, and in Grandmaster group C Sipke Ernst (university obligations) was replaced by reigning Dutch Women’s champion Zhaoqin Peng. The categories of the two events remain the same.

Some recapitulation:

Group A

TITLE NAME                COUNTRY      BIRTH RATING
                                       YEAR

GM    Veselin Topalov     Bulgaria     1975  2813
GM    Viswanathan Anand   India        1969  2779
GM    Vladimir Kramnik    Russia       1975  2750
GM    Peter Svidler       Russia       1976  2750
GM    Levon Aronian       Armenia      1982  2741
GM    Teymour Radjabov    Azerbeidjan  1987  2729
GM    David Navara        Czech Rep.   1985  2725
GM    Alexey Shirov       Spain        1972  2720
GM    Ruslan Ponomariov   Ukraine      1983  2703
GM    Magnus Carlsen      Norway       1990  2698
GM    Sergey Tiviakov     Netherlands  1973  2680
GM    Loek van Wely       Netherlands  1972  2676
GM    Sergey Karjakin     Ukraine      1990  2672
GM    Alexander Motylev   Russia       1979  2662

Average rating: 2721
Category: 19

Groep B

TITLE NAME                COUNTRY      BIRTH RATING
                                       YEAR

GM Bu Xiangzhi            China        1985   2671
GM Dmitry Jakovenko       Russia       1983   2671
GM Gabriel Sargissian     Armenia      1983   2667
GM Viorel Bologan         Moldavia     1971   2659
GM Pavel Eljanov          Ukraine      1983   2658
GM Friso Nijboer          Netherlands  1965   2641
GM Erwin L’Ami            Netherlands  1985   2593
GM Suat Atalik            Turky        1964   2583
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave France       1990   2579
GM Daniël Stellwagen      Netherlands  1987   2576
GM Jan Werle              Netherlands  1984   2551
GM Vladimir Georgiev      Macedonia    1975   2532
GM Jan Smeets             Netherlands  1985   2525
IM Tatiana Kosintseva     Russua       1986   2458

Average rating: 2597
Category: 14

Groep C

TITLE NAME                COUNTRY      BIRTH RATING
                                       YEAR

GM    Michal Krasenkow    Poland       1963   2647
GM    Emanuel Berg        Sweden       1981   2582
IM    Ian Nepomniachtchi  Russia       1990   2545
GM    Parimarjan Negi     India        1993   2538
GM    John van der Wiel   Netherlands  1959   2522
GM    Stellan Brynell     Sweden       1962   2502
IM    Nadezhda Kosintseva Russia       1985   2493
WFM   Hou Yifan           China        1994   2481
IM    Wouter Spoelman     Netherlands  1990   2450
GM    Zhaoqin Peng        Netherlands  1968   2436
GM    Harmen Jonkman      Netherlands  1975   2431
IM    Edwin van Haastert  Netherlands  1974   2393
IM    Thomas Willemze     Netherlands  1982   2384
IM    Manuel Bosboom      Netherlands  1963   2375

Average rating: 2484
Category: 10

(FIDE-ratings van oktober 2006)

It’s gonna be a great tournament. To get in the mood already a bit, you can replay two Pearls of Wijk aan Zee here.