News – Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Morozevich favourites in 71st Corus Chess Tournament
November 6 2008 – Corus Chess Press

17-year-old Magnus Carlsen is one of the favourites to win the 71st edition of the Corus Chess Tournament, together with routiniers Alexander Morozevich and Vassily Ivanchuk. The Corus Chess Tournament will take place from Friday, January 16th to Sunday, February 1st, 2009 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.

Magnus Carlsen (Norway) won the jubilee event in January this year together with the Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian. Like Carlsen, Aronian is also one of the participants in next year’s event.

The two titleholders will meet Alexander Morozevich (Russia) and Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), as their main rivals. Morozevich and Ivanchuk had a very successful year in 2008 and are currently ranked second and third in the world.

Five players will make their debut in the A-group: the young Dutch grandmasters Jan Smeets and Daniel Stellwagen, the sensational Wang Yue from China, who climbed up to the 11th place on the latest world ranking list, the winner of Grandmaster group B in 2008, Sergei Movsesian, and the flamboyant grandmaster Leinier Dominguez from Cuba (ranked 21st on the FIDE October rating list).

The complete field in the Grandmaster group A:

Alexander Morozevich (Rusland, 2) 2787 1977
Vassily Ivanchuk (Oekraïne, 3) 2786 1969
Magnus Carlsen (Noorwegen, 4) 2786 1990
Levon Aronian (Armenië, 7) 2757 1982
Teymour Radjabov (Azerbeidjan, 8) 2751 1987
Wang Yue (China, 11) 2736 1987
Michael Adams (Engeland, 12) 2734 1971
Sergei Movsesian (Slowakije, 13) 2732 1978
Sergei Karjakin (Oekraïne, 15) 2730 1990
Gata Kamsky (Verenigde Staten, 16) 2729 1974
Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 21) 2719 1983
Loek van Wely (Nederland) 2618 1972
Daniel Stellwagen (Nederland) 2605 1987
Jan Smeets (Nederland) 2604 1985

Gemiddelde rating: 2719
Categorie: 19
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