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Three Tie for First at Keres Memorial

Wijk aan Zee Set to Begin

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Three Tie for First at Keres Memorial

Vassily Ivanchuk, Anatoly Karpov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov all finished with 7 points in 9 rounds to share first at the Paul Keres Memorial. The three leaders were well ahead of the pack, holding a 1.5 point lead over the 4th place finisher, Emanuel Berg.

The biggest surprise of the Memorial Rapid was the play of Super-GM Alexei Shirov. In a shocking performance, Shirov managed just one draw - and eight losses - in the tournament, finishing dead last with just 0.5 points. His play was marked by uncharacteristic blunders throughout, and he finished with a performance rating of 2139.

Paul Keres was an Estonian grandmaster who, from the mid 1930s through the 1960s, was one of the strongest chessplayers in the world. Although he never competed in a match for the World Championship, he is considered by many one of the strongest players of the 20th century. Keres died in Finland in 1975, at the age of 59.

Wijk aan Zee Set to Begin

The Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee begins this Friday, and will feature a typically strong field for one of the year's premiere tournaments.

The star studded field looks to be one of the strongest Corus groups in years. New FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov will be playing his first tournament as the world's strongest active player, and will need an excellent performance to keep his rating over 2800. He is joined by five more of the world's top ten players, including his closest rival, Viswanathan Anand, and World Cup champion Levon Aronian. For the first time in several years, there is an American in the field, Gata Kamsky. Here is the complete field:

Veselin Topalov (2801)
Viswanathan Anand (2792)
Levon Aronian (1982)
Peter Leko (2740)
Vassily Ivanchuk (2729)
Boris Gelfand (2723)
Etienne Bacrot (2717)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2709)
Michael Adams (2707)
Ivan Sokolov (2689)
Gata Kamsky (2686)
Sergei Tiviakov (2669)
Sergey Karjakin (2660)
Loek Van Wely (2647)

There was one late withdrawl from the tournament; Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik dropped out, citing health issues.

We will be providing complete coverage of this tournament, as well as the always competitive B and C sections, over the next few weeks. For the official tournament site, click here.