Exciting last round

During the world championship the spectator seats hadn’t exactly been overflowed with Mexicans, but for the last round the venue was packed with local chess fans who wanted to see with their own eyes how Anand and Leko were pretending to play chess for twenty moves. But most of the people didn’t know or care, since Vishy was winning a well-deserved world title. full story »

Viswanathan Anand World Champion

Interview GM Peter Heine Nielsen

After my interview with Loek van Wely, Vladimir Kramnik second in Mexico, I also had an interview with Peter Heine Nielsen, Viswanathan Anand’s second. Thursday, right after the start of the twelth round, we spoke about different things, from working with Anand and the atmosphere in the team to Magnus Carlsen and Nielsen as a chess writer. full story »

Anand passes Grischuk’s test

Quite unexpectedly Grischuk, who was just drained during yesterday’s press conference, had collected some new energy for the penultimate round and really put Anand to the test. The Russian could even have won somewhere after Vishy had blundered in the ending and so the last round could have been an exciting one. But with superhuman power the Indian managed to save the half point and thanks to the draw between his rivals Gelfand and Kramnik the Indian just needs a draw tomorrow with White against Leko to take over Kramnik’s world title. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (38)

Every Saturday an endgame study is published at ChessVibes, selected by Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. full story »

Gelfand keeps on rockin’

Gelfand is playing a great world championship tournament and many predicted that this had to end at some point. Last Tuesday one of the grandmasters present even predicted he would soon collapse. But today Boris proved them wrong by scoring the second win of the black pieces in Mexico so far, against Aronian. He thus decreased Anand’s lead to a point, after the Indian expectedly had drawn his game against Svidler. Kramnik this time satisfied his fans by scoring a fine White victory over Leko and the clash between the two Alexanders ended positively for Morozevich, who beat Grischuk in a reversed Sicilian. full story »

Three times Anand

After the press conference Anand was happy to answer the many extra requests by journo’s. First he showed the hidden ideas behind his ending with Morozevich to the Russian television, then he answered Vijay Kumar’s questions for millions of fans in India en after that I also had a short interview with Vishy. All three now online. full story »

Anand close to world title

Because he had also beaten Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich could perhaps have been the one to stop Anand from becoming world champion that quickly, but Vishy already decided to act as true world champion by avoiding a repetition of moves and beating Moro with a beautiful combination. He was received in the press room with a big applause and it wasn’t clear who had more difficulty: the journalists in keeping their objectivity or Vishy with hiding his smile. full story »

Grischuk-Kramnik draw in 13 - press conference online!

To everybody’s surprise, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand’s big competitor at this WCC in Mexico and in danger of losing his world champion’s title, has drawn today’s game in just thirteen moves. Against Grischuk, he played the Petroff again and after White made a Fingerfehler, he decided to offer a draw. Kramnik, one and a half point behind Anand, accepted. We already have the press conference of this game, in which I asked Kramnik about why he played the Petroff again (and not an opening closer Loek’s repertoire for example) and if his match in 2008 influences playing for a win in this tournament. full story »

Anand survives

Although after today four rounds still have to be played, the game Kramnik-Anand was of course a crucial one at this WCC. Again Vishy survived a position with a slight material deficit against Kramnik and consolidated his lead since Gelfand had placed a perpetual at Leko’s king. Like in almost any game, Svidler was surprised by Morozevich’s opening choice but still could have won in one position. It was a draw. Aronian won, according to his opponent Grischuk with a “brilliant attack” in the ending. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (37)

This “weekly” endgame study should have been published already on September 15th, but because of the editor-in-chief’s busy times unfortunately there’s has been a delay. As always, the study is selected by Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. The plan is to publish solution and the new study next this Saturday. full story »

The world champion goes down

World champion Vladimir Kramnik went knockout today in the ninth round of the WCC in Mexico. A marvellous Morozevich was needed; the Russian with the unique playing style acted orthodoxly unorthodox again with a g-pawn push in front of his king, but Kramnik quickly choked on it. Update: last video has been added. full story »

Interview GM Loek van Wely

During the eighth round, somewhere when Svidler started his attack against Kramnik’s king, I had an interview with GM Loek van Wely. During the WCC in Mexico Loek is the second of no-one less than the world champion. I asked him what it’s like to work for Kramnik, compared to Topalov and Kamsky, for whom he used to work before. Furthermore, we talked about how a chess player benefits from being a second and what information he can take with him to his own tournaments and what not. Watch the interview here: full story »

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