Grischuk-Kramnik draw in 13 - press conference online!
26 September 2007 12:20 AM | Last modified: 0:22
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.
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Unbelievable that we have the videos so fast, actually before the round is over. You should rename your site to “Live from Mexico”.
I guess it influences his behaviour in this tournament that there will be a match if he doesn’t win, he can say what he wants, nice question, Peter
you guys are doing a great job with the videos.. just fabulous.. the service is quick and the videos are of good quality!! keep it up.
thnx,
asim
wat exactly is a Fingerfehler?
is it where u accidentally move the wrong piece?
These digital days it should perhaps be explained by “slip of the mouse” (literally it’s “finger failure”). So a synonym for a small mistake, e.g. wrong move order.
Kramnik’s actions were deeply pathetic, and a sign that he has given up any hope of retaining his title in this event. Felix makes a good point, though. Kramnik’s behaviour is strongly reminiscent of Botvinnik’s, at the end of his world championship matches against Smyslov and Tal, in 1957 and 1960, respectively. In both cases, trailing by several points with 4-5 games to go, Botvinnik chose to surrender the title with a series of short draws. However, both times, he had his eye on the return match a year later. Kramnik clearly has the same approach.
Admittedly, Botvinnik did the same thing at the end of his match with Petrosian, when there was no rematch clause, but I think in that case he simply knew that he could not beat the guy.
It shows once more what a great fighter Anatoly Karpov was, who chose to go down with flying colours on more than one occasion…!
I am sorry I am bit out of the rules.
Can anyone, please answer the following questions:
i) If Anand wins Mexico, he becomes WC? And Kramnik no longer is WC?
ii) Kramnik, has the right for a revenge match but he will
play it in the role of former WC? And if he wins, he will
become WC again?
And what happens if they draw?
iii) And what happens to Topalov in the middle of this?
iv) Wjat are the rukes for being included in a candidates
championship. It appears to me that being included
because you get a good classification in the previous one
may backfire. in this one, the two worst positions
are taken by two players in this condition.
As a final comment I think Anand is really playing
like a champ. He could win by simple making draws.
He this way, i am affraid that he may be telling others
what are his inovations.
I agree with the previous posts that Kramnik simple
does not care.
I think he tries to be solid. If he’s going to lose his title, at least lose it proudly, with a positive score, in this way he could get more money and fame. I think he deserved Peter’s question, because he didn’t even try to fight. Or, he might have wanted to rest more and prepare for the next game. I don’t know.
Luis:
i) true
ii) I’m not sure, but i think that Anand, in the World Champion’s position would defend his title in the case of a draw.
iii) Topalov will play a match with the winner of the world cup next year
iv) I agree. I think the world champion’s title should be decided in a match. If they want to organise a tournament, then they should make real qualifications for that. Anyway, Anand played very well so far.
This is all rubbish. Why is a World Champion and great player not entitled to take a quick draw? He was just not lucky missing wins against Anand (2x), Grischuk. He will beat Anand next year.
Steve, you give Kramnik quite harsh critique. I don’t feel he deserves all of that. In that position his arguments for excepting the draw seems reasonable. However his arguments for sticking with the Petroff does not. He mentions the fact that he has 3 games left, but really, who belives he can catch Vishy in just 3 games ? So why not play something more risky against Grischuck already? I really can’t follow his logic there.
The problem is: He is payed to play and he doesn’t. He of course has the right to play quick draws, but he will loose (with 2 o-s
) popularity.
If Anand wins, he most likely will. He will then next year play a World Championschip match against Kramnik.
I am not quite sure if Anand retains his title if the match is drawn. Maybe somebody can tell us about that.
Topalov will play the winner of the World Cup and the winner of that match will challenge the World Champion. Kramnik or Anand ind 2009
It is not a surprise that Kramik played like this. He has always been a chess mouse. He, Svidler, Leko = DRAW, DRAW,DRAW. Topalov would have never played so cowardly. He is much more spectacular and has FRESH IDEAS AND GUTS TO FOLLOW THEM!
I really think that Sofia rules should be applied in more tournaments…
Now I wonder what type of mass media campaign will Kramnik’s german manager (and maybe some russian units) set up for him… :-). They gained experience in the aftermath of the Elista match ;-).
I do not mean that the abovementioned are bad players. Simply my preferences are in favor of others…and I think this is well justified.
Hello Peter,
Compliments for your high quallity new journalism. Even for a layman as I’m, chess becomes interesting to watch. See you soon at VIOS.
Ciao,
Robert
Lajos. Thanks for your answers.
I am glad that Anand becomes WC if he wins this tournament! Now, if asparov decises to write a book
on his successors, Anand will have avery deserving
Section!!
At the time of the Elista matches, I noticed that the
match site was publishing a set of pdf files with
very good analysis of the games. I recall that most of them were made by Ruslan Scherbakov.
Is anyone aware whtehe rthere is a site with similar
analysis of this tournament? http://www.crestbook.com
contains (apparently) very good analysis of most
of the games, but not all. The analysis are in Russian
(unfortunately, I cannot read Russian) but
the games and alternative lines, and notation
is conventional which is not bad. But being able
to read the words would be nice.
Speaking of the Elista matches, I wonder whether
it woudl not have made more sense, having a round robin
tournament in Elista and individual matches, now
in Mexico.
One still remembers the old controversy of
candidate tournaments in the 60s.
A response to Steve Giddins and the like:
It is unreasonable to believe that Kramnik can just win a game by playing on: The caliber of the opponents in this tourn. is hard fathom, and not even Rybka would be able to win black’s position against Grishuk. The players explained why such a dry position arose and this suffices for me. The lay-people should be lay-people and let the grandmasters be grandmasters!
I personally think that even though such “dry” positions arise in chess, there should at least be a 20-move limitation to when a draw can be offered because there are cases in which the game is drawn prematurely. The game starts with even material and in an even position, so let’s take draws on move 1 then…An edge can be gained in two ways: by playing a good move, or by having your opponent play inaccurate ones or blunders(which happens very rarely and I realize that), and I have examined a lot of games in which even the SuperGMs are inaccurate in a position(even when the stable move is natural or obvious). And finally in my view, if Kramnik had any ambition of winning the tournament or at least fighting, he would have played his games differently and wouldn’t accept draws at move 13(which by the way isn’t the first time) because he is one of the best(in my view) if not the best Endgame player. Fact is, that there is only a theoretical possibility that he wins the tournament, so he doesn’t really care about what he’ll be playing to the end. My bet is that he will draw all three remaining games until the end, and if he gets the opportunity to do it shortly, he will take it. His mere opening choice is obviously aimed at getting draws. Don’t take it personally it’s just MY opinion.
The issue is not about Kramnik agreeing a draw in the position he reached against Grischuk, Of course, that position was indeed dead. My criticism is directed at his choice of opening. In his tournament position, he should have chosen a more dynamic opening and avoided precisely the kind of dead position he reached.
Even a “lay person” should be able to understand this.
No need to get personal Steve.
I do agree that the petroff was a “curious” choice, to say the least. But I have great respect for Kramnik. He is not a crowd pleaser, but his understanding of the game is incredible. Why he doesn’t sometime go for more double edge play is beyond me. I do hope that Anand can get some good play out of Kramnik if they play a match. Worst scenario is both of them playing super cautious with black.
Anyone remember Vlad playing the Sicilian Najdorf?? Awful! I believe this explains his opening choice. The best way to get back in the running is to keep playing your game. Had he lost in 18 moves, I doubt anyone bashing him today would be congratulating him on “going down fighting”.
Ugh. Two years ago I never thought I’d be defending Drawnik, but the level of hate this guy draws is remarkable.
The tournament is virtually over. Anand is the big winner.
Kramnik was just gutless and doesn’t deserve to win.