Viswanathan Anand will start his campaign against Sergei Karjakin of Ukraine, the world's youngest-ever Grandmaster, in the first round of Corus Super Grandmasters chess tournament that begins in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands, later on Saturday.
Looking for a record fifth title in this traditional event, Anand will get seven black and six white games in the tournament, which is some disadvantage compared to World champion and main competitor Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, who will get seven white games in all.
The category 19 round-robin event will see most of the leading players in action in this 14-player tournament over the next fortnight, but the chess buffs will have to wait as long as the penultimate round to watch the much-awaited clash between Anand and Topalov.
Anand drew number nine in the drawing of lots and will start as black against Karjakin in the first round.
As per FIDE stipulations in such events, the top half gets more whites than the lower half and this is where Topalov edged Anand as he got number four that guarantees an extra white.
Anand, 36, who is amongst the older lot in the tournament will meet the youngest participant, Karjakin, 16, for the first time.
The Ukrainian prodigy became a Grandmaster at the age of 12 years and seven months and it seems unlikely that his record will be broken this decade.
Topalaov will start his tournament as white against Russian turned American Gata Kamsky, who returned to competitive chess recently after a long hiatus.
Kamsky did well in the last World Chess Cup and qualified for the candidate's stage of the 2007 World championship match tournament. The adage about class being permanent is surely true in the case of this former prodigy.
The other interesting clash of the opening round will be between World Cup champion Levon Aronian of Armenia and former world championship finalist Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.
Third seed Aronian with his impeccable technique is likely to be a tough opponent for Ivanchuk, seeded fifth.
Pairings round 1:
Loek Van Wely (Ned) v/s Ivan Sokolov (Ned); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Geo) v/s Etienne Bacrot (Fra); Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) v/s Michael Adams (Eng); Veselin Topalov (Bul) v/s Gata Kamsky (Usa); Boris Gelfand (Isr) v/s Peter Leko (Hun); Sergei Karjakin (Ukr) v/s Viswanathan Anand (Ind); Levon Aronian (Arm) v/s Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr).
