Viswanathan Anand will start as the favourite when the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2004 gets underway at the Town Hall of Dortmund on Thursday.
The tournament, which is being played on a new format, but under the classical time control, also features Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko and Peter Svidler.
In the opening round, NIIT Brand Ambassador, Anand will meet young Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany, who hails from Dortmund itself. The other two players in Anand's group are Peter Svidler and Sergei Reblevsky.
"I am in good form and feel confident. But in a tournament like this, all players are strong and capable of doing well," said Anand, who shared the Dortmund title with Kramnik in 1996 and has three times finished runner-up.
Earlier this year, Anand registered his fourth title win at Wijk Aan Zee. Anand won a comprehensive victory and joined an exclusive club of players including former World chess champion Max Euwe, Lajos Portisch and Viktor Kortchnoi, who have won this prestigious event four times.
He also led the Rest of the World team to victory over an Armenian side led by Garry Kasparov in a unique match in Moscow this year. He was also awarded the 2003 Chess Oscar for the third time in his career.
Last year at Dortmund, Anand had finished second behind the surprise winner, Bologan. But Anand had earlier beaten Bologan in what is regarded as the best game of the Year 2003. This year Anand, sponsored by NIIT, will be out to ensure that the title also comes his way.
Anand has also passed Vladimir Kramnik on the rating list to become a clear second, a position that he held before also. Garry Kasparov is the No. 1 rated player.
The eight players invited for the Dortmund tournament have been divided into two groups of four each. In the first stage of the tournament, the players in each group will play a total of six games, two each against the other in their group. The top of each group will then advance to the semi-finals. The winners of the semis will play for the title and losers for the third place.
The third and fourth in both groups will play fifth to eighth places.
The second group comprises Kramnik, Leko, defending champion Viorel Bologan and the 14-year-old Sergi Karjakin of Ukraine, who two years ago at the age of 12 had become the youngest Grandmaster in the world.
Last year at Dortmund, Bologan had emerged as a surprise winner, while Anand had skipped the tournament. Rublevsky qualified for this tournament as the winner of the Aeroflot Open in Moscow.
Anand starts as the firm favourite, having won the Wijk Aan Zee title this year and he is in food form and is a clear No. 2 in the world ahead of Kramnik, but behind Garry Kasparov. For Kramnik and Leko, the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is the last big tournament before their Classical clash, from September 25 to October 18 at the Centro Dannemann in Brissago/Switzerland.
The tournament ends on August 1.
Pairings for first round:
Group A: Anand - Naiditsch, Svidler - Rublevsky
Group B: Kramnik - Karjakin, Leko - Bologan
