Anand could be five-time winner

Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): This edition of the Corus chess tournament will see GM Viswanathan Anand going for his third title on the trot and fifth overall in a tough field that boasts players with a formidable average elo rating of 2721.

The draw of lots to determine the first round pairings in this category-19 meet will be done later.

However, the pairings of group C, featuring upcoming players, have been made available and Indian hope Parimarjan Negi will be playing GM Evgeny Alekseev of Russia in the first round.

Negi is the only Indian, besides Anand, P. Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy to have been invited for this event. While Anand has been a regular in Corus, both Harikrishna and Humpy have played in group B in the past.

The following are sketches of some of the top group A participants:

• Anand (world ranking 2): The Indian ace is on a roll. Winning one tournament after another, he has already made many believe that he is in effect the top player in the world today. For Anand, there is one ambition that remains to be achieved ? the 2800 elo rating. Right now he is adrift of the magical figure by 14 points. It will not be easy for him to gain all those here, but most certainly that is what he will try to achieve.

• Veselin Topalov (world ranking 3): The Bulgarian was extremely ominous in the last world chess championship in Tripoli where he started off with 9.5/10 before being ousted by eventual winner Rustam Kasimdzha-nov of Uzbekistan.

The performance in Tripoli also saw a spurt in his rating as he threw Vladimir Kramnik off the number 3 spot. In the last edition of the event Topalov was the only one who had beaten Anand.

• Kramnik (world ranking 4): Kramnik regained lost pride after a nail-biting victory over Hungarian Peter Leko in the classical world championship match in Switzerland a few months ago. Yet, the Russian has lost most of his followers mainly because of his dry style these days. Importantly, he is the only player in last 20 years who has beaten Garri Kasparov in a match.

• Leko (world ranking 5): The highest rated Hungarian sta-lwart is a cool customer. He nearly defeated Kramnik in the classical match and after the last game disaster many had thought that Leko will now be shattered.

• Alexander Morozevich (world ranking 6): He is the most unpredictable player in the top ten today. Morozevich had a an average result in the last Russian championship won by Kasparov and also in the last chess Olympiad where the Russian supremacy was grounded by Ukraine.

However, it is known that every time ?Moro? is down, he hits back more vehemently. This could be one platform where it might just happen.

• Michael Adams (world ranking 7): Cool as a cucumber and hard as a rock, Michael Adams is the best English player these days.

• Peter Svidler (world ranking 8): From number four in the world in 2004, to number 8 in 2005, it has been a steep fall that Svidler would like to forget. The Russian champion of 2003 was moving in top gear when suddenly a few below average performances hit him badly.

• Judit Polgar (world ranking 9): Quite interestingly, Judit was removed from the latest world ranking as she had not played any event for more than a year now.

The best woman chess player ever in the history of the game, became a mother in August 2004 and is now ready to resume action on the battlefield.

• Alexander Grischuk (world ranking 13): A consistent performer with a lively playing style.

• Ruslan Ponomariov (wor-ld ranking 16): Ponomariov won the World Championship in Moscow in 2002 defeating fellow Ukrainian Vassily Ivan-chuk in the final. He was one of the star performers for his country in the Olympiad.

• Nigel Short (world ranking 29): The Commonwealth Champion, known for his lashings against ?dry players?, is entertainment on and off the board.