Atalik in Corus Wijk Aan Zee

 

                 

First Round of Corus 2007 Started Today

Turkish Grandmaster Suat Atalık who won Corus C group with 10.5/13 quite comfortably last year is now playing Corus B which is going to be quite challenging for the Grandmaster from İstanbul. Corus Wijk aan Zee is one of the oldest traditional tournaments which is the first "Grand Slam" event of the year.  The event is between 12-28 January 2007.  The sponsor of the event, which game its name, Corus is one of the largest steel companies in Europe since 2000.  If GM Atalik wins this difficult group, he will be the first grandmaster to win C and B groups consecutively and qualifying for Group A, where world's strongest grandmasters are invited. 

The first round of Corus Wijk aan Zee started today.  GM Suat Atalık had a draw with white pieces against local youngster GM Daniel Stellwagen (2587).

Click on the link below to see earlier news about Corus, Atalik's past in Wijk aan Zee B, his thoughts about the upcoming event and the list of participants.

GM Atalık's name is quite a familiar one for the event.  He also played in Group B in 1997 (Hoogovens) and he scored a +1 and finisihed at the sixth place.  The event was won by Dutch GM Friso Nijboer who also won the event back in 1997. Furhermore, Atalık is a well-known host as he has been the second of Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and British GM Nigel Short.

Last week, TCF Press Officer Özgür Akman visited GM Atalik's camp in İstanbul with IM Barış Esen and asked him about his expectations from Corus. His only aim is to qualify and he sincerely replied:

"There is no difference between becoming second or the last.  Daily performance and luck is very important at such level. If I were alone I would not concern myself as much as I do now since I also need to think of Katya and the baby. Technically the tournament is tournament has three big guns like Jakovenko, Eljanov and Bologan and there can by anything for the rest of the group. Furthermore, I am not a very sympathetic as child prodigies like Parimarjan Negi or Magnus Carlsen.  If I do not qualify this year, I would not get an invitation for next year, even for group C unless there is a big change in my rating , which is unlikely to happen so since my rating is within certain thresholds for years. Therefore, considering Corus, this is one of my last chances."

Here is the crosstable of the event in 1997. You can reach the official web site by clicking on the link here. 

Here is the most recently updated list of participants to all groups.     

Corus A   Av.Elo: 2719   Category:19

Title	Name	Country	B.Year	Rating	Ranking
GM	Veselin TOPALOV	BUL	1975	2883	1
GM	Vishwanathan ANAND	IND	1969	2779	2
GM	Vladimir KRAMNİK	RUS	1975	2766	3
GM	Peter SVIDLER	RUS	1976	2750	4
GM	Levon ARONIAN	ARM	1982	2744	7
GM	Teimour RADJABOV	AZE	1987	2729	11
GM	David NAVARA	CZE	1985	2719	15
GM	Ruslan PONAMARIOV	UKR	1983	2723	14
GM	Alexei SHIROV	ESP	1972	2715	17
GM	Magnus CARLSEN	NOR	1990	2690	24
GM	Loek VAN WELY	NED	1972	2683	26
GM	Sergei TIVIAKOV	NED	1973	2682	27
GM	Sergey KARJAKIN	UKR	1990	2678	30
GM	Alexander MOTYLEV	RUS	1979	2647	57

 

Participants of Corus B where GM Atalik is also participating is as follows:

 Corus B   Av.Elo: 2600   Category:14

Title	Name	Country	B.Year	Rating	Ranking
GM	Dmitry JAKOVENKO	RUS	1983	2691	38
GM	Pavel ELJANOV	UKR	1983	2675	33
GM	Gabriel SARGISSIAN	ARM	1983	2658	46
GM	Viktor BOLOGAN	UKR	1971	2658	46
GM	Bu XIANGZHI	CHN	1985	2644	63
GM	Friso NIJBOER	NED	1965	2638	74
GM	Erwin L'AMI	NED	1985	2594	157
GM	Suat ATALIK	TUR	1964	2586	187
GM	Daniel STELLWAGEN	NED	1987	2585	220
GM	Maxime VACHIER-LAGRAVE	FRA	1990	2573	234
GM	Jan WERLE	NED	1984	2551	311
GM	Jan SMEETS	NED	1985	2538	402
GM	Vladimir GEORGIEV	MKD	1975	2525	498
GM	Tatiana KOSINTSEVA	RUS	1986	2475	958

Corus C   Av.Elo: 2486   Category:10

Tite	Name	Country	B.Year	Rating	Ranking
GM	Michal KRASENKOW	POL	1963	2651	55
IM	Ian NEPOMNIACHTCHI	RUS	1990	2587	181
GM	Emmanual BERG	SWE	1981	2586	187
GM	Parimarjan NEGI	IND	1993	2538	402
GM	John VAN DER WIEL	NED	1959	2511	615
WFM	Yifan HOU	CHN	1994	2509	635
GM	Stellan BRYNELL	SWE	1962	2501	701
IM	Nadezhda KOSINTSEVA	RUS	1985	2496	743
GM	Zhaoqin PENG	NED	1968	2431	1546
GM	Harmen JONKMAN	NED	1975	2425	1643
IM	Wouter SPOELMAN	NED	1990	2414	1911
IM	Thomas WILLEMZE	NED	1982	2393	2472
IM	Edwin VAN HASSTERST	NED	1974	2391	2524
IM	Manuel BOSBOOM	NED	1963	2375	2954

Source: Chessvista

P.S.:We would like to thank Frits Agterdenbos, Mark Crowther and Suat Atalik for their help in the preparation to this report.