The 64th Wijk aan Zee (Beverwijk from 1938 until 1967) chess festival took place in the De Moriaan community centre, Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands from January 12 (Round 1) to January 27 (Round 13), with rest days on January 14, 18 and 23. For the third year in a row, the main sponsor was the steel company Corus. Sadly, compared to the previous year there were many high profile absentees, most notably the mighty triumvirate of Garry Kasparov (Elo ranked #1 in the world), Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (#2) and Viswanathan Anand (#3). Kasparov was meant to play, but as stated by his manager Owen Williams, less than a week before the tournament, he had to withdraw, due to a viral infection. He was replaced by Morozevich (#5). Kramnik pulled out since he wanted to prepare for the Brains in Bahrain match (that was subsequently delayed) against Deep Fritz. He was replaced by his former second Bareev (#12). Anand declined in advance, because he tried to defend his FIDE World Champion title at the FIDE World Championship Tournament (2001/02) (he lost in the semifinal in December). Ruslan Ponomariov (#7) and Vasyl Ivanchuk (#8) played in that tournament too, and their final match ended on January 23 (with Ponomariov as the new FIDE World Champion). Finding replacements was a headache.. It ended up with Michael Adams (#4), Alexander Morozevich (#5), Peter Leko (#10), Boris Gelfand (#11), Evgeny Bareev (#12), the new Dutch no. 1 Loek van Wely (#14), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (#15), Alexander Khalifman (#17), Joel Lautier (#19), Alexey Dreev (#20), Alexander Grischuk (#25), Jeroen Piket (#28), Mikhail Gurevich (#48), and Jan Timman (#82).

At the opening ceremony, Rauke Henstra, officer of Corus Netherlands, announced a new sponsorship deal that would keep the tournament going for at least another three years. Corus had sponsored the annual tournament until 2002, to be number 64 in succession. Despite hard times in the industry and with all squares covered, there would be a 65th tournament. Further more, Corus Packing Plus, Corus Strip Products IJmuiden and the external sponsor Delta Onroerend Goed BV had decided to garantuee the tournament until 2005, and possibly longer. The following day the boards were ready and Gennadi Sosonko and others were ready at the demo boards. The commentators on the games in GM groups A (this page) and B were based in the marquee next to the De Moriaan centre. All rounds began at 1:30 pm, except for the last round on 27 January which began at 12:30 pm. Time control: 40 moves in two hours, followed by 20 moves in one hour, and the rest of the game in half an hour.

Bareev took the first prize when his Round 13 opponent Kasimdzhanov lost his way in a good position, unleashing a speculative piece sacrifice that did not work out. Bareev had already played once in Wijk aan Zee, in Hoogovens (1995), where he finished 2nd. But despite that result, he had not played here again. When he took the lead in Round 9, Piket asked him, "will you play to win the tournament, or do you expect to play here again in seven years?" The words may have been a stimulus, and abandoning his usually cautious attitude, he obtained three points from the last four rounds. He made a blunder in Round 11 and lost in 20 moves to former FIDE World Champion Khalifman, but nevertheless it was his greatest tournament performance. At least according to himself. He took home 10,000 euros (= about $11,323, or $15,910 in 2019 value). The always modest Bareev said at the closing ceremony, "First of all I'd like to thank Kramnik - for not being here."

Teenager Grischuk took 2nd place. His strong-minded and fearless play won the hearts of the Wijk aan Zee fans. Adams had a spectacular start with wins over Grischuk and Gelfand, and a draw with Bareev. This gave him the lead with 2.5/3, but he continued with a string of draws. Timman, whose games are always adrenaline-filled affairs that pleases the crowds, won the Spectator's Prize for Game of the Day in Round 8 with his exciting win over Gelfand. With a weakened field, the fans turned their attention to home talent Loek van Wely as a possible winner, but in the pairings draw he was given number 13 and this proved to be an unlucky omen. He crashed to his worst ever performance, losing seven games.

Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, 12-27 January 2002

               Age Elo   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
 1 Bareev       35 2707  * ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1  9
 2 Grischuk     18 2671  ½ * 0 1 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1  8½
=3 Adams        30 2742  ½ 1 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½  8
=3 Morozevich   24 2742  ½ 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1  8
 5 Khalifman    36 2688  1 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1  7½
 6 Leko         22 2713  0 1 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1  7
=7 Dreev        32 2683  0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½  6
=7 Gelfand      33 2708  ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * 0 1 0 1 ½ ½  6
=7 Piket        33 2659  ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 1 * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½  6
=7 Lautier      28 2687  0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ * 1 ½ 1 ½  6
=7 Timman       50 2605  0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 * ½ ½ 1  6
12 Gurevich     42 2641  ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½  5½
13 Kasimdzhanov 22 2695  0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 * 1  4½
14 Van Wely     29 2697  0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 *  3

Sources

CHESS magazine, April 2002, pp. 33-37
Wikipedia article: Tata Steel Chess Tournament#2002
TWIC #374 (http://theweekinchess.com/html/twic...)
TWIC #377 (http://theweekinchess.com/html/twic...)
Chess.gr website (http://www.chess.gr/tourn/2002/coru...)
FIDE rating list January 2002 (http://fidelists.blogspot.com/2008/...)
Zenon Franco Ocampos in ABC Color (http://www.tabladeflandes.com/Zenon...)
Leidsch Dagblad, 28 January 2002, p. 26 (https://leiden.courant.nu/issue/LD/...)
Tidskrift för Schack, March 2002, pp. 156-162 (http://www.schack.se/tfsarkiv/histo...)
Alfonso Romero Holmes in Jaque 552, pp. 14-36 (http://www.bartelski.pl/olimpbase/l...)
John B Henderson in The Scotsman, January 2002 (http://www.scrkuppenheim.de/heco/ar...)
Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant, 8 January 2002, p. 18 (https://krantenbankzeeland.nl/issue...)
Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant, 28 January 2002, p. 23 (https://krantenbankzeeland.nl/issue...)
Saevar Bjarnason in Dagblaðið Vísir, 12 January 2002, p. 51 (http://timarit.is/view_page_init.js...)
Mihail-Viorel Ghinda in Revista Romana de Sah, 2/2002, pp. 15-19 (http://www.stere.ro/wp-content/uplo...)

Previous edition: Corus Group A (2001). Next: Corus Group A (2003). See also Corus Group B (2002) and Corus Invitation Tens (2002).

Original collections: Game Collection: Wijk aan Zee Corus 2002 by User: suenteus po 147 and Game Collection: Corus Group A 2002 by User: Tabanus. Round dates are from Leidsch Dagblad. Thanks to User: Paint My Dragon for paraphrased information from CHESS magazine.