Day 1: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

After some unusual difficulties and withdrawals of some of its star players, the 64th annual Corus chess tournament main event is finally on its way! After Anand declined to play the organizers had to replace both Ivanchuk and Ponomariov who qualified to the finals of the FIDE world championships, scheduled for mid January. Some journalists hint that the dates were not coincidental and were selected to concur with this festival. After all, the Corus organizers didn't go along with FIDE's request to make this event one of its Grand Prix events for 2002. Then Kramnik, unexpectedly dropped out, hoping to play a lucrative match vs the computer program Fritz- an event that was also postponed and so the BrainGames champ could have played here after all. Last but most certainly not least was the worst blow of them all that came when Kasparov announced he is ill and was unable to fly and so also had to step down from the event. Again, evil tongues wondered out loud if that was indeed true or is the world #1 player, having won the event a number of times in the past, is avoiding the risk to his rating by keeping away.

As it stands now, the A group is still very very strong with an ELO average of 2688 and 10 out of the world's top 20 playing. To some, me included the absence of the big stars adds a new and exciting dimension to this event: ANYONE can win it. Ok, maybe some are more favorite than others but with a good run it could be anyone's victory. This certainly isn't one of those ' vini vidi vici' Kasparov events.

Dreev - Khalifman

Dreev - Khalifman: After a theoretically sharp opening of Bf4 Gruenfeld, the players went on a piece exchange 'en masse' agreeing to a draw right as a simple and boring R ending was about to occur. It is not uncommon for players to be cautious and not push their luck in the first round of such a demanding event.

Timman - Piket: Similarly uneventful was this 'Dutch Derby' . In a topical line of the Paulsen Sicilian white seemed to have gained at least a little edge, but nothing tangible came out of it . After the queens came off a peace offering followed.

Gurevich - Morozevich: White chose a very quiet line against the Slav tame his ever aggressive opponent. Moro played as actively and dynamically as he could, an unbalanced middle game arose. After some maneuvering it seemed that black was doing all he could to generate winning chances, but white kept it all under control. A draw was the fair result.

Lautier pondering

Gelfand - Lautier: Gelfand again played his favorite 7.g4 vs the Semi Slav, got some open lines and a dangerous initiative. When his opponent tried to play provocatively and dubiously took a pawn, white's piece play was enormous. Black tried to sac an exchange to get some relief, alas white's technique was flawless. Black went down with little fight.

Bareev - Adams: A positional Nimzo quickly turned tactical and wild when white decided to get activity instead of a simple pawn recapture . Black was smart to return the pawn quickly, but white kept trying a clever piece sacrifice. Another player might have been lost in the tactical maze, but the ever cool Adams defended patiently, ungreedily returned the piece, and even seemed to have the better of it, but Bareev had an aesthetic queen sacrifice to force a draw by perpetual.

Leko powermoving van Wely

Leko - Van Wely: This was by far the most exciting game of the day! An aggressive English attack in the Sicilian Najdorf brought us opposite side castling with the usual double winged action. When white seemed to be fast on his way to open up the black king. Black took drastic measures to counterstrike at the white queenside castled king, but Leko calculated further and proved his material advantage outweighed and outlasted black's attack. Some accurate endgame play assured white's win.

Grischuk - Kasimdzhanov: A theoretical dual in the Ruy Lopez ended in white's favor when black played the old Geller move Rd8 in the opening, only to inconsistently follow it with the other idea of taking on d4. Mixing these together led to a clear edge for white, but in serious time trouble ( Sasha had only 4 seconds to answer the sensible 39…d5) gave black some counter chances. Black's 40th was also not the best and white consolidated and cashed in nicely.

The daily public prize of 250 Euro went to Peter Leko by only one vote more than Gelfand.