Corus chess tournament - Definition and Overview

The Corus chess tournament takes place every year in a small town Wijk aan Zee in the province North Holland of the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens tournament before the Dutch steel and aluminium producer Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel into the Corus group (2000 was the first year the event was sponsored by Corus). The tournament took place in Beverwijk in the years 1938 until 1967.

Very strong chess players compete in the prestigious tournament but also regular club players are welcome to play. The top 'A' section pits 14 of the world's best against each other in a round robin tournament. In 2005, 8 of the top ten players in the world will participate.

The 1999 tournament is remembered for Kasparov's famous win against Veselin Topalov. (See Garry Kasparov for the score of the game.)

Winners of the Grandmaster A group since 1996 have been:

• 1996 - Vassily Ivanchuk
• 1997 - Valery Salov
• 1998 - Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand
• 1999 - Garry Kasparov
• 2000 - Garry Kasparov
• 2001 - Garry Kasparov
• 2002 - Evgeny Bareev
• 2003 - Viswanathan Anand
• 2004 - Viswanathan Anand
• 2005 - Peter Leko

In 2004 Viswanathan Anand, with 8.5/13 finished ahead of Peter Leko and Michael Adams with 8/13. The year 2004 brought Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen (born November 30, 1990) international fame by winning in the C group. In 2003, Anand also won with 8.5/13, with Judit Polgar, the world's top ranked female, finishing second.

Among other high profile chess tournaments are those which take place in Dortmund and Linares.

External link

• Corus chess tournament official website (http://www.coruschess.com/)