Desperate to reclaim a place in the top ten, world rapid champion Viswanathan Anand would target a podium finish in a tough field at the Altibox Norway super tournament.
If recent records are anything to go by, Anand is likely to stage a comeback of sorts. It has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for the Indian in the last year or so but he has risen back to where he belonged every single time.
Anand will join the tournament from a Bundesliga game in Germany where he helped his team Baden OS win the title for 12th time in last 13 years.
But the statisticians have a hard job on hand finding out when was the last time Anand started as the lowest seed on rating in any super tournament. It will be a different challenge in a different setting for the multiple-time world champion across formats.
The top eight of the world top ten are part of the field and the other two players in are two biggest names who just dropped out of the top ten – Anand and Levon Aronian of Armenia.
The top seed and rating favourite is yet again local hero and world champion Magnus Carlsen and it will be interesting to see if he can live up to his top billing.
There will be nine-rounds in all and a couple of rest days are thrown in for good measures. The drawing of colours will be decided in a blitz tournament where in the top five finishers will get an extra white while the last five will get an extra black.
