All set for Corus tournament

By Arvind Aaron

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 12. All is set for the start of the Corus chess tournament beginning here on Friday. Barring Alexander Morozevich who will arrive on Friday evening all the 13 players have arrived.

The windy town is all set for the next super category bash. This time the event has got even stronger. Former world champion Garry Kasparov has a responsibility to prove that he is the No. 1 ranked player in the midst of champions as Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.

It will be a 14-player round robin and the venue is the same De Moriaan. ``We are going to have a colder start,'' said organiser Ms. Cathy de Looze about the chilling temperature which is expected to be below zero for the entire event.

Alexei Fedorov was the last player to reach when he arrived on Thursday evening. Viswanathan Anand missed a flight and arrived in the afternoon. Kasparov is warming up since Wednesday and Ivanchuk arrived on Monday.

The players and the press will be taken to a factory site of the Steel Plant on Friday where the opening ceremony will take place. ``I think we have a great tournament this time,'' said Mr Jeroen Van Den Berg, the President of the Organising Chess Club taking into account the changes in the chess world in the last three months.

Anand and Kramnik were the joint winners here in 1998 and they are expected to fare well. Both of them should be showing great variance and their depth in preparation to excel against the Dutch group and show top of the line preparation against colleagues in the elite top ten.

The chess sets, clocks, arbiters, internet staff, players are all ready. All are waiting for the inauguration of this 63rd Corus chess tournament. For the first 60 years it was Hoogovens chess tournament and the company was taken over by a British group.

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