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Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen, and Kramnik are Chesshousehold names. But how many of the others invited to this years Corus Chess tournament do we know? We present these talented but relatively lesser known players in a different, interesting way. Be aware that most of them are super stars in their own country/region. Pentala Harikrishna Look at this www.chessmetrics.com list. 1 Kramnik, Vladimir 2541 2 Bu Xiangzhi 2520 3 Kundin, Alexander 2494 4 Radjabov, Teimour 2474 5 Leko, Peter 2466 6 Kamsky, Gata 2462 7 Polgar, Judit 2458 8 Ponomariov, Ruslan 2452 9 Bacrot, Etienne 2432 10 Harikrishna, Pentala 2381 According to Jeff Sonas, this is the list of the highest ratings of 14 year olds, ever! Sure, No. 3 Kundin is not popular, but No. 10 is not a bad ranking to have, especially if you go down the list and find Jakovenko, Aronian, Naiditsch, Short, Kasimdzhanov, and last but not the least Topalov at Nos 12, 13, 17, 30, 44 and 50! i warned you No. 10 is not bad! (Probably No. 11 now...

Update Kramnik - Van Wely (Draw) Ivanchuk - Polgar (Draw) Adams - Gelfand (Draw, what else) In other interesting games in the other groups, Harikrishna was winning against Short but he seems to have messed up his winning chances. Same with Stellwagen and Li Chao, they both lost significant winning edges against Humpy and Irina Krush respectively. Hou Yifan is putting up a good show against the 2700 Bacrot. A draw is still possible although Bacrot is piling on the pressure now. The other prodigy Negi is almost equal against Sweden's Pontus Carlsson.

The GM Group B is by no means less interesting. There are super Grand Masters, dangerous floaters, and teenagers looking to break through. Bacrot, Cheparinov, Short are very strong and will go all out. Humpy is riding on her successful year 2007. She needs to be watched. In fact Humpy - Yifan is a potential future rivalry. Yifan must have done some serious work the last few months. She's gained heavily in the January ratings list, so lets see if she can put up a fight, even though the opposition is pretty strong for her. Nepomniachtchi and Stellwagen need to be watched carefully. GM Group B GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2695 GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2673 GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2670 GM Sergey Movsesian SLK 2670 GM Pentala Harikrishna IND 2668 GM Michal Krasenkow POL 2668 GM Nigel Short ENG 2649 GM Daniel Stellwagen NED 2639 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2611 GM Koneru Humpy IND 2606 GM Erwin L’Ami NED 2577 GM Jan Smeets NED 2558 WGM Hou Yifan CHI 2502 IM Wouter Spoelman NED 2445

Vassily Ivanchuk won the XX Carlos Torre Memorial tournament at Merida, Yucatan. In the finals, he beat India's Pentala Harikrishna 3-1, winning the last two games after being tied 1-1. Ivanchuk continues his habit of collecting points at the non-prime events and losing heavily in the leading tournaments. Whatever, but works ! Earlier, in the semi-finals Ivanchuk beat Alexander Graf and P Harikrishna beat Jesus Nogueiras. The knock out style tournament had started with 16 players. The format was similar to the recently held World Cup chess tournament. Two games first and then tie-breaks if required.

Note: At the time of writing this report, Ivanchuk beat Graf in the first game of the semi-finals and the other semi-final first game was drawn. The semi-finals seem to have been reached and the following seems to be the situation: Vassily Ivanchuk 2787 vs Alexander Graf 2576 P Harikrishna 2668 vs Jesus Nogueiras 2549 There is a local presence in Nogueiras. The full quarter-final results: Ivanchuk beat Almeida 1.5-0.5 Graf beat Quezada 1.5- 0.5 Nogueiras beat Cordova 2-0 Harikrishna beat Meier 1.5-0.5

Game 1 results of the Quarterfinals: Tregubov – Meier 1-0 Cordova – Zapata 1-0 J.Gonzalez – Almeida ½–½ Bruzon – Ivanchuk 0-1 Harikrishna – G.Hernandez 1-0 Nogueiras – Dominguez ½–½ H.Hernandez – Graf 0-1 Quezada – Leon Hoyos 1-0 Now, I'm a bit confused about the games on 20th Dec 2007. Ivanchuk seems to have drawn his game against Bruzon and won another game against Omar Almeida Quintana, and both with white ! And he's supposed to have won a game against Bruzon yesterday. Whats going on here ? Why oh why do you (Ivanchuk) play in these places and make things difficult for us ? Oh ok, to gain back the rating points you just lost, you say ? OK OK. Someone please help ! One more result I have is of P Harikrishna beating Georg Meier. A weird game where black resigns in a position that he can hold and just a few moves before the end, he was kind of better ! Once again folks, what's going on ? !

This tournament takes place at the growing chess town of Mérida, Yucatán, México from 15th-23rd December 2007. The tournament includes a knock out phase. The leading players are: GM Ivanchuk Vassily, GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro, GM Dominguez Perez Lenier, GM Harikrishna Pentala, GM Tregubov and others. Games of round two are here: http://www.okantomi.com.mx/torre2007/w2/tfd.htm If the above link does not work, then try this one - http://www.idey.gob.mx/ct2008.htm