November 14 2005 - Corus Chess Press

Grandmaster Alexander Beliavsky, together with Viktor Korchnoi co-winner of the Hoogovens Schaaktoernooi in 1984, is one of the fourteen players in the Grandmastergroup B of the CCT 2006. Beliavsky is also one of the six players with a rating over 2600 in the Grandmastergroup B, that will have its strongest edition ever, with an average rating of 2582,5 (according to the October list of FIDE). This means that the tournament has category 14.

Other top favourites are: Zoltan Almasi (Hungary), David Navara (Czech Republic), Giovanni Vescovi (Brazil), Alexander Motylev (Russia) and Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgaria).

Outsiders are the youngsters Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Daniel Stellwagen (Netherlands), Erwin L’Ami (Netherlands) and Jan Smeets (Netherlands). Female chess is represented by European champion Katerina Lahno (Ukraine) and Koneru Humpy (India), who made a huge jump on the latest ranking list.

Dutchman Friso Nijboer and Vladimir Georgiev, who won the Grandmastergroup C in 2005, complete the field.

The winner of the Grandmastergroup B will qualify for the Grandmastergroup A in 2007. The dates of the Corus Chess Tournament 2006 are: 13 – 29 January 2006.

Participants Grandmastergroup B 2006