Wijk aan Zee Tournament

Yesterday the list of participants of the strongest tournament in Corus 2008 in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, was announced. Here is the list of participants of the main tournament who confirmed their participation:

1. Viswanathan Anand (India, 2801). 1st on the world rankings of October 2007.
2. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2787). 2nd on the world rankings of October 2007.
3. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2785). 3rd on the world rankings of October 2007.
4. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 2769). 4th on the world rankings of October 2007.
5. Peter Leko (Hungary, 2755). 5th on the world rankings of October 2007.
6. Shakhryar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2752). 7th on the world rankings of October 2007.
7. Teymour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2742). 8th on the world rankings of October 2007.
8. Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2741). 9th on the world rankings of October 2007.
9. Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2736). 11th on the world rankings of October 2007.
10. Michael Adams (England, 2729). 13th on the world rankings of October 2007.
11. Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2714). 17th on the world rankings of October 2007.
12. Judit Polgar (Hungary, 2708). 20th on the world rankings of October 2007.
13. Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine, 2681). 30th on the world rankings of October 2007.
14. Loek van Wely (Holland, 2680). 32nd on the world rankings of October 2007.

The average rating of the tournament of the 20th category lacks 10 points in comparison with rating of the recent World Championship, and with consideration of 14 participants (almost twice as much as at the World Championship) it makes it the strongest tournament ever. Eight chess-players from the first ten participants will take part in it at once.

Related links:

• Tourney announcement