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Exciting last round

30 September 2007 9:16 AM | Last modified: 21:18

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.

There was a special atmosphere today in the playing hall. Anand was called on stage first, and received a warm applause already. During the short game both he and Leko played their moves cautiously and both often went away from the board to the area with the drinks. Leko thought for about twenty seconds after Vishy offered a draw with 20.Be3, and then he was the first to congratulate Anand with his world title. A soft applause could be heard but when Anand stepped out of the playing hall, about a hundred fans and many journalists were waiting, armed with mobile phones, photo cameras and video cameras. In the press room Anand received a new applause and the atmosphere during the press conference was a mixture of relief and joy.

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Considering the rest of the games, it was quite an exciting round. Kramnik showed himself a worthy ex-world champion by, as he had announced, also playing for a win in his last White game and he was succesvol against Aronian, who acted disappointingly in Mexico. During the game the Armenian couldn’t find a proper answer to the powerful Rb1 + Ba1, another great example of opening preperation by Kramnik.

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In this last round Svidler scored his first win but he wasn’t that proud of it. His victory was based on a strong novelty (Rc1), copyright of his second Alexander Motylev. Svidler gave him all the credits during the press conference. “I asked him to refute the Najdorf and he did.”

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The last moves of the WCC were made by Morozevich and Gelfand. The opening phase followed J.Polgar-Shirov, Prague 1999, but there 17…Bb4 was played. It became pretty complicated and on move 23 Black made a big mistake with Qg6 but it’s not easy to refute (both players missed it and so it’s a nice puzzle. You’ll find the answer in the press conference).

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Afterwards I asked some questions to Anand, Leko and Gelfand. The colours in the Anand part are wrong (my camera was switched on night vision and unfortunately I only found out afterwards) but I don’t want to keep it from you:

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Final standings (click for bigger version):

Results/schedule:

Round 1: Thursday, Sept. 13th 2007, 14:00h
Kramnik 
 ½-½  Svidler
Morozevich 
 ½-½  Aronian
Anand 
 ½-½  Gelfand
Grischuk 
 ½-½  Leko
Round 2: Friday, Sept. 14th 2007, 14:00h
Svidler 
 ½-½  Leko
Gelfand 
 ½-½  Grischuk
Aronian 
 0-1  Anand
Kramnik 
 1-0  Morozevich
Round 3: Saturday, Sept. 15th 2007, 14:00h
Morozevich 
 1-0  Svidler
Anand 
 ½-½  Kramnik
Grischuk 
 ½-½  Aronian
Leko 
 ½-½  Gelfand
Round 4: Sunday, Sept 16th 2007, 14:00h
Svidler 
 ½-½  Gelfand
Aronian 
 1-0  Leko
Kramnik 
 ½-½  Grischuk
Morozevich 
 ½-½  Anand
Free day: Monday, Sept. 11th 2007
Round 5: Tuesday, Sept. 18th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
 1-0  Svidler
Grischuk 
 1-0  Morozevich
Leko 
 ½-½  Kramnik
Gelfand 
 1-0  Aronian
Round 6: Wednesday, Sept. 19th 2007, 14:00h
Aronian 
 ½-½  Kramnik
Gelfand 
 1-0  Morozevich
Grischuk 
 ½-½  Svidler
Leko 
 ½-½  Anand
Round 7: Thursday, Sept. 20th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
 1-0  Grischuk
Kramnik 
 ½-½  Gelfand
Morozevich 
 ½-½  Leko
Svidler 
 ½-½  Aronian

Second half

Round 8: Friday, Sept. 21st 2007, 14:00h
Svidler 
 ½-½  Kramnik
Aronian 
 ½-½  Morozevich
Gelfand 
 ½-½  Anand
Leko 
 1-0  Grischuk
Free day: Saturday, Sept. 22nd 2007
Round 9: Sunday, Sept. 23th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
 ½-½  Aronian
Grischuk 
 1-0  Gelfand
Leko 
 ½-½  Svidler
Morozevich 
 1-0  Kramnik
Round 10: Monay, Sept. 24th 2007, 14:00h
Aronian 
 1-0  Grischuk
Gelfand 
 ½-½  Leko
Kramnik 
 ½-½  Anand
Svidler 
 ½-½  Morozevich
Round 11: Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
 1-0  Morozevich
Gelfand 
 ½-½  Svidler
Grischuk 
 ½-½  Kramnik
Leko 
 ½-½  Aronian
Free day: Wednesday, Sept. 26th 2007
Round 12: Thursday, Sept 27th 2007, 14:00h
Aronian 
 0-1  Gelfand
Kramnik 
 1-0  Leko
Morozevich 
 1-0  Grischuk
Svidler 
 ½-½  Anand
Round 13: Friday, Sept. 28th 2007, 14:00h
Aronian 
 ½-½  Svidler
Grischuk 
 ½-½  Anand
Leko 
 1-0  Morozevich
Gelfand 
 ½-½  Kramnik
Round 14: Saturday, Sept. 29th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
 ½-½  Leko
Kramnik 
 1-0  Aronian
Morozevich 
 ½-½  Gelfand
Svidler 
 1-0  Grischuk

Sunday, Sept. 30th 2007

Closing ceremony

Written by peter | Filed under Videos, Interview, Tournaments 

Comments

10 Responses to “Exciting last round”

  1. Srinivasan Ramiah on 30 September 2007 2:01 PM

    Dear Anand, Brilliant!! What a performance it has been. Becoming World champion twice is no joke. 1995 was an accident. Now we all look forward to your match with Kramnik in 2008, which I am sure you will WIN :)

    Thank you. You bring joy to millions of chess fans across the world.

  2. Jackson Showalter on 30 September 2007 4:12 PM

    Great coverage too!

  3. Andre on 30 September 2007 4:44 PM

    Has Kramnik let Anand win in Mexico so that he would earn more money in the coming match? :-)

    And will Anand switch to d4 in the coming Kramnik-Anand match to avoid the Petroff in the same way Leko did in his 2004 match against Kramnik?

  4. beckett 74 on 30 September 2007 6:00 PM

    “When your hand plays one way and your heart another …”
    I like Tal’s saying.

    I like the new world champion. He’s a gentleman.

    I like your coverage (That was you, Peter, starting the applause at the start of the press conference, wasn’t it?)

    I don’t like the Petroff. As an e4 player you have to despise it.

    I like the idea of a clash of styles and personalities in the forthcoming match Anand-Kramnik.

    So, thanks for the clips and the comments. By now I’m reading them in Dutch. I like this language. I’s a bit funny, though.

    Keep up the good work.

  5. peter on 30 September 2007 9:12 PM

    After waking up in Mexico, I might add a few things I hadn’t mentioned yet.

    1) Anand was the only undefeated player in this tournament.
    2) There were only two games won by Black. Both involved Aronian with White; the 2nd round against Anand and the 12th round against Gelfand.
    3) Anand will cross the 2800 mark as FIDE has announced they will add this WCC for the October list.
    4) Torsten sent me an Excel file in which some calculations were made. The rating changes in this tournament:
    Anand +11.0
    Kramnik +5.8
    Gelfand +14.0
    Leko +0.4
    Svidler -1.2
    Morozevich -11.0
    Aronian -9.4
    Grischuk -9.6

  6. Silken on 30 September 2007 9:21 PM

    Andre: Kramnik doesn’t gain any money from not winning this championship. If he had won, he would’ve got a match against Topalov with the same prize fund.

    Arguably, he saves some money as seeing Danailov again would probably require heavy blood pressure medication, but I think it is barely outweighed by the loss of the first prize this time.

  7. acirce on 30 September 2007 10:53 PM

    “I don’t like the Petroff. As an e4 player you have to despise it.”

    Really? Nobody has told me about it..

  8. beckett 74 on 1 October 2007 12:55 AM

    @ acirce: take a look at the interview with GM Nielsen. I’m convinced that Kramnik lost potential and points entirely relying on the Petroff. It may be a strong weapon against the e4 (Svidler once said that this response fundamentally questions the e4) but quite a few of the positions arising are drawish and not very exciting to look at.
    And that’s what I don’t (want to) understand: a player like Kramnik has to defend his title, desperately needs to win with black, and plays the Petroff only to agree a draw after 12-15 moves.
    Let’s say it like this: Fischer, Karpov, or Kasparov would have chosen an opening that offers more potential for complications and winning chances.

  9. Lajos Arpad on 1 October 2007 1:30 AM

    Thanks for the great coverage… I really enjoy your professional work.
    Ramiah: 1995 wasn’t an accident. Kasparov was a better player in that moment. Now, i’m not sure. Most probably we won’t find out, because Kasparov’s moves are no longer made on the table, but it would be great to see a return match. Concerning rating points Kasparov would be still a favourite, but i think the real favourite now would be Vishy.
    beckett 74: I think the former world champion is a gentleman too. I’m looking forward to see these great titans fight each other.
    Silken: “he saves some money as seeing Danailov again would probably require heavy blood pressure medication, but I think it is barely outweighed by the loss of the first prize this time.” lol.

  10. Bert de Bruut on 1 October 2007 9:10 AM

    That +11 rating gain would bring Anand nicely over 2800 again, if no other results need to be taken into account still.

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