Defending Champion Viswanathan Anand of India will take on Hungarian prodigy Peter Leko in the first round of the 66th edition of the Corus Grandmasters Chess Tournament at Wijk Aan Zee. Actual play begins late on Saturday evening in this small but windy, cold and picturesque Dutch seaside town.

Winner of the Corus Grandmasters event three times (1989, 1998 and 2003) in the past, Anand is bidding for a fourth title, which will tie him with Max Euwe, who won it four times. Like Anand, Garry Kasparov has also won it three times, but the temperamental Russian as once again skipped this prestigious event.

Anand, who turned 34 in December, had a super 2003 with six titles, including Corus Grandmasters Chess title 2003 in nine tournament appearances. Five of his titles were Rapid chess events. In classical chess competition, he won Corus, finished second at Dortmund and tied for third at Linares.

"I look forward to a tough challenge.  I hope that I can defend the title. All the players have a good chance for finishing in the top spot. The one who can keep the rhythm till the end will make the difference," said Anand, the NIIT Brand Ambassador.

Anand and Leko had clashed quite a few times in 2003. In Linares, they exchanged one win each in double round-robin event, while at Dortmund Anand won one and drew once to lead 1.5-0.5. At the Rapid Chess event in Cap d'Agde, he beat Leo in the qualification stages, while at the Melody Amber Blind and Rapidplay, they drew their games.

The 24-year-old Leko, currently ranked tenth in the world on the FIDE list, once rose to as high as fifth. He was due to meet Vladimir Kramnik after winning the Dortmund event, which was to serve as the qualifier for he BrainGames title match, but that match has not taken place yet. But Leko prepared well for that clash and now the preparation can be put to use in Corus.

In 1989, Anand shared the title with Zoltan Ribli, Predrag Nikolic and Guyla Sax, while in 1998, he shared the title with Vladimir Kramnik. Anand was the sole winner of the title for the first time in 2003. Interestingly, Anand has not lost his last 59 games played in the event.

Alexander Morozevich withdrew a few days back due to illness. Morozevich, number seven on the Fide rating list of January 2004, was replaced by Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria who is number six on the Fide rating list of January 2004 with a rating of 2735.

The Corus Chess event has three groups, -- A, B and C. The organizes adopt the policy of "Moving up the pyramid" with the winner of Group B getting a promotion into the elite group A the following year. The winner of Group C moves up to Group B.

This year, Evegeny Bareev has come via that route, having won the Group B last year. The 14-player round robin event in Group A is a Category 19 with defending champion, Anand, currently ranked third in rating list, being the favourite.

In 2003, Anand had won the tournament with a 8.5 points out of a maximum of 13 while Kramnik finished fourth with seven points. Kramnik, ranked second  in the world, has never won this prestigious event and will do his best to  rectify that. With Garry Kasparov, the top-ranked player in the world, not coming this year, the fight for the title may well be between these two.

Others like Michael Adams, Peter Leko and Alexey Shirov have also been regulars here but have never won the title.

Round 1 - Saturday the 10th

Schedule for Round 1;
Veselin Topalov - Michael Adams; Ivan Sokolov - Jan Timman; Peter Leko -
Viswanathan Anand; V. Akopian - V. Kramnik; Loek Van Wely - Evegeny Bareev;
Viktor Bologan - Zhang Zhong; Peter Svidler - Alexei Shirov

Seedings:

1. Vladimir Kramnik (2777)
2. Viswanathan Anand (2766)
3. Peter Svidler (2747)
4. Alexei Shirov (2736)
5. Veselin Topalov (2735)
6. Peter Leko (2722)
7. Michael Adams (2720)
8. Evgeny Bareev (2714)
9. Ivan Sokolov (2706)
10. Vladimir Akopian (2693)