Time flies and only a few months after the event in Belgium the superstars are back at the board to compare their computer analysis. Personally I don’t understand why Topalov still gets invited to such events and I don’t understand why Svidler got invited to replace Kramnik either. He is simply not himself anymore ever since his dramatic loss to Karjakin. After the disasterous performance in his recent match against MVL it is tough to imagine him winning a single game in this field, even in the first round against Topalov. Adding Grischuk to the lineup would have certainly made the tournament more attractive. Speaking about not winning games, we also have Anish Giri and Ding Liren in the field and of course our absolute favorite Wesley So. To be fair, there is a decent chance that they will all beat Topalov though. If anyone was ever totally overrated in the world rankings, it’s him. Although one has to admit that he isn’t exactly a Drawmeister, so he doesn’t do any stat padding.

Enough talk, let the draws begin!