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Chess giants for Frankfurt Classic

The fifth Frankfurt Chess Classic, starting tomorrow in Ballsporthalle, will see the giants of international chess lock horns with each other.

Yes, Garri Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoli Karpov will all be in action in the "Siemens Giants" category, termed as the 'Jewel in the crown' chess event.

Compared to last year's tournament, the Siemens Giants this year will only be a category 21 tournament instead of 22. The simple reason is the rating of FIDE World champion Anatoly Karpov, who is currently number nine in the chess world ratings with 2,710 ELO, whereas last year, Vassily Ivanchuk had a rating of 2,740 ELO.

The ELO average rating of the fifth Frankfurt Chess Classic tournament has, therefore, dropped from 2,781 to 2,764, although the top seeded players have the following ratings: Kasparov 2,812 ELO, Anand 2,781 ELO and Kramnik 2,751 ELO.

The match between the two arch-rivals, Kasparov and Karpov is eagerly awaited as the two have avoided meeting head to head since 1996. Thus, this tournament is being termed as the 'rapid chess world championship'!

Immediately after the tournament, Viswanathan Anand, the fastest chess player in the world and No. 2 in the world chess rankings, will pit his wits against the fastest commercial chess computer in the world: a Primergy 870 NT server from Siemens, running the computer chess program Fritz from ChessBase GmbH in Hamburg.

This speed chess match will consist of four games and will be played on July 3-4.

Last year, Fritz on Primergy took on speed specialist Anand for the first time. Anand just managed to come out on top and once more underlined humankind's superiority in the game of chess. This year's contest should be interesting as Fritz on Primergy has considerably more powerful processors and RAM.

Pen sketches of the four players at the Frankfurt Classic:
Garry Kasparov
Russia, born April 13, 1963
ELO 2812; FIDE-ranking: 1

Viswanathan Anand
Indian, born December 11, 1969
ELO 2781, FIDE-ranking: 2

Vladimir Kramnik
Russia, born June 25, 1975
ELO 2751, FIDE-ranking: 3

Anatoli Karpov
Russia, born May 23, 1951 ELO 2710, FIDE-ranking: 9