The very approachable Suat is a familiar and welcome face in the Corus festival. For some time he was there in a capacity of a second (first to Loek van Wely and then to Nigel Short), and last year he was recruited to play in group C, which he won in a cake walk, scoring a resounding 10.5/13 – no less than 1.5 points from his nearest rivals. Turkey’s only native-born Grandmaster (and second ranked, after the affiliation change of GM M. Gurevich) has a rating progress graph that looks like a seismograph during an earthquake! After some rises and slumps, he reached a peak in April of 2006 (gaining 70+ points in less than a year), but since then gave away nearly 50 of them back.

Happily married (who would have believed!) to Ekaterina - a WGM, the Grandmaster from Istanbul is quite an active player who logs over 100 ELO rated games per year. 2006 was full of mixed results (and the aforementioned rating drop), but curiously he had a sound plus score in every event he played but one -Only in Polanica Zdroi did he have a real blackout, finishing last with a dismal 3/9. Could he be the first player to win two separate GM groups in Corus in the span of two years? Suat is certainly an experienced player, who once in form can beat anyone, and certainly should not to be underestimated.