June 30 2008 - Corus Chess Press

The organizers of the 71st Corus Chess Tournament have invited the young Dutch Grandmasters Daniel Stellwagen (1987) and reigning Dutch Champion Jan Smeets (1985) for the Grandmaster group A in 2009. For both players it means a debut on the highest level. Together with Loek van Wely, they will represent the Netherlands in the traditional chess festival, that will be held from Friday January 16th to Sunday 1st of February 2009.

Besides the participation of the above mentioned three Dutch players, the following World Class players have confirmed their participation: Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Gata Kamsky (United States) and Teymour Radjabov (Azerbaijan). Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Morozevich will be in the Top-5 of the new World Ranking list, that will be published on July 1st 2008.

The young Ukrainian Grandmaster Sergei Karjakin, as well as the winner of last year’s Grandmaster group B, Sergei Movsesian (Slovakia), have also confirmed their participation. The complete field with 14 participants will be presented in October 2008, as well as the names of the participants in the Grandmaster groups B and C.

Pavel Votruba new chief arbiter Corus Chess Tournament
Czech international arbiter Pavel Votruba (Benesov, 1948) will be the new chief arbiter, starting with the Corus Chess Tournament 2009. Mr. Votruba, who has been a member of the arbiters team since January 2004, succeeds Mr. Thomas van Beekum. Mr. Votruba worked as an arbiter at different chess Olympiads, and has the international master title as well.
Mr. Van Beekum has been chief arbiter since 1991, when he succeeded Mr. Constant Orbaan.