Corus Chess

The first super-tournament is the A-section of Corus in the Netherlands, a fourteen-player round robin. The favorites are #1 ranked Magnus Carlsen, world Champion Visi Anand, and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. The tournament is actually weaker than it has been in the past with only four players from the top 10 and 6 from the top 20, still with the avg rating at 2719, this a category XIX tournament and definitely classifies as a 'super'

A big story for the American crowd is how is US Champion Hikaru Nakamura going to do in this field. Hikaru is rated 2708, but has had little success in the international field. Arguably, this will be the first super-tournament that he has even participated in. Here is his record against 2600+ competition.

December 2003: 13th Ciudad de Pamplona IO (3.0/7 against 2611 opp)
June 2004: FIDE World Chess Championships (4.5/8 against 2665 opp)
July 2005: Biel International GM (4.5/10 against 2633 opp)
February 2006: Cuernavaca Young Masters (6.0/9 against 2627 opp)
October 2007: Magistral Ciudad de Barce (7.0/9 against 2602 opp)
November 2008: Olympiad (6.5/10 against 2608 opp)
July 2009: G.P. Donostia Capital (6.5/9 against 2679 opp)
August 2009: NH Chess Tournament (3.5/10 against 2658 opp)
December 2009: London Chess Classic (3.0/7 against 2694 opp)

One tournament a year until 2009 where he's played in three strong tournaments. He tied for 1st in the G.P. Donostia tournament, but was disapointing at both the NH Chess Tournament and the London Chess Classic. He is playing quite well at the World Team Championships, however, with a specactular win over Boris Gelfand in the King's Indian.

Anything north of an even score should be considered a success, but a top 3 finish is necessary in order to be considered in the world's elite.