Picture by Frits Agterdenbos from ChessVista.com

In the picture of the Opening Ceremony, I counted only 13 players. The one missing is Kramnik. I am not sure why.

Title – Name – Country – Rating – World Ranking

GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2783 1
GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2779 2
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2766 3
GM Levon Aronian ARM 2744 7

GM Teymour Radjabov AZE 2729 11
GM Peter Svidler RUS 2728 12
GM Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2723 14
GM David Navara CZE 2719 15
GM Alexey Shirov ESP 2715 17
GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2690 24
GM Loek van Wely NED 2683 26
GM Sergey Karjakin UKR 2678 29
GM Sergey Tiviakov NED 2667 36
GM Alexander Motylev RUS 2647 58

The average rating of group A is 2718 and it is a category 19 event.

There are a few important notes about the top 4 seeds. After the drawing today, it has been determined that Topalov will have 7 games with White and 6 with Black. Anand, Kramnik and Aronian all have 6 games with White and 7 with Black.

Another important note is Topalov will have White against both Kramnik and Anand while Kramnik has White against Anand. Anand is the unlucky one with 2 Blacks against his main rivals. Aronian has White against Kramnik and Topalov and Black against Anand.

Knowing these facts, what is your prediction? Who will win this tournament? Topalov may have a great shot with an extra White and having White against both Anand and Kramnik.

Make sure you check in tomorrow for LIVE Blogging 🙂

Round 1 – Saturday the 13th

V. Topalov – A. Motylev
L. van Wely – T. Radjabov
S. Karjakin – V. Kramnik
A. Shirov – P. Svidler
S. Tiviakov – M. Carlsen
D. Navara – L. Aronian
R. Ponomariov – V. Anand

What is your prediction for round 1?
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