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Kramnik wins Tal Memorial with a round to go

18 November 2007 21:28 PM | Last modified: 21:30

The “draw-with-Black-playing-for-a-win-with-White” strategy was not enough for Kramnik in Mexico (mainly because he also lost one game) but in Moscow it proved a succesful method. Four draws and his fourth win with White today (against Mamedyarov) were enough to secure his tournament victory with a round to go. The other games of the eighth round ended in a draw.

It’s difficult to say something about the other games but concerning the key game Kramnik-Mamedyarov, it’s good to inform you that quite early the players were already in time trouble. Kramnik proved to be the coolest and, well, when we look back at the tournament, without Anand and Topalov participating, he’s really in a class of his own. We’re looking forwared to Corus already!

Standings after eight rounds:

  1. Kramnik                  6
  2. Shirov                  4,5
3-6. Carlsen, Jakovenko,
     Gelfand, Leko            4
7-9. Kamsky, Ivanchuk,
     Mamedyarov              3,5
 10. Alekseev                 3

The schedule:

10 November 2007               11 November 2007
Leko       - Shirov     1-0    Leko       - Kamsky     ½-½
Kamsky     - Gelfand    ½-½    Gelfand    - Kramnik    ½-½
Kramnik    - Carlsen    ½-½    Carlsen    - Alekseev   ½-½
Alekseev   - Ivanchuk   ½-½    Ivanchuk   - Jakovenko  ½-½
Jakovenko  - Mamedyarov ½-½    Shirov     - Mamedyarov ½-½

12 November 2007               13 November 2007
Kramnik    - Leko       1-0    Leko       - Alekseev   ½-½
Kamsky     - Shirov     0-1    Kamsky     - Kramnik    ½-½
Alekseev   - Gelfand    ½-½    Gelfand    - Jakovenko  ½-½
Jakovenko  - Carlsen    0-1    Carlsen    - Mamedyarov ½-½
Mamedyarov - Ivanchuk   1-0    Shirov     - Ivanchuk   ½-½

14 November 2007               16 November 2007
Jakovenko  - Leko       ½-½    Leko       - Mamedyarov ½-½
Alekseev   - Kamsky     ½-½    Kamsky     - Jakovenko  0-1
Kramnik    - Shirov     1-0    Kramnik    - Alekseev   1-0
Mamedyarov - Gelfand    ½-½    Gelfand    - Ivanchuk   ½-½
Ivanchuk   - Carlsen    ½-½    Shirov     - Carlsen    1-0

17 November 2007               18 November 2007
Ivanchuk   - Leko       ½-½    Leko       - Carlsen    ½-½
Mamedyarov - Kamsky     0-1    Kamsky     - Ivanchuk   ½-½
Jakovenko  - Kramnik    ½-½    Kramnik    - Mamedyarov 1-0
Alekseev   - Shirov     0-1    Alekseev   - Jakovenko  ½-½
Carlsen    - Gelfand    ½-½    Shirov     - Gelfand    ½-½

19 November 2007
Gelfand    - Leko       .-.
Carlsen    - Kamsky     .-.
Ivanchuk   - Kramnik    .-.
Mamedyarov - Alekseev   .-.
Jakovenko  - Shirov     .-.

Two videos by Robert Fontaine & Gérard Demuydt of Europe-Echecs:

Time trouble in Kramnik-Mamedyarov

Ivanchuk talking to the media…? Well, shortly!

Comments

9 Responses to “Kramnik wins Tal Memorial with a round to go”

  1. thorex on 18 November 2007 23:38 PM

    What did Robert Fontaine say before Ivanchuck’s “Ok, what you want?” (which sounds very rude, but perhaps it’s just his bad English)?

  2. Glenn Bady on 19 November 2007 2:16 AM

    Kramnik, a class by his own without Tapalov and Anand participating. I don’t think so, what about Ivanchuk?

  3. peter on 19 November 2007 8:22 AM

    Well yes, I’m a big fan of Ivanchuk too and he’s actually the no. 2 in the world right now. But is he still capable of winning the Big Ones? Let’s hope he’ll succeed in Siberia…

  4. Vosuram on 19 November 2007 8:43 AM

    “Kramnik, a class by his own without Tapalov and Anand participating”. I didn’t mention any remark like that in the article abouts the “Liga de Campeonesâ€? winner (http://www.chessvibes.com/?p=1369)…

  5. Oak on 19 November 2007 9:09 AM

    I felt that we saw another Kramnik in his game versus Mamedyarov. It was nothing like a solid line as White and an real open fight. Is some way Kramnik showed no fear to lose which seems normally his first concern. I am now really looking forward to the Kramnik-Anand match.

  6. Ron on 19 November 2007 10:31 AM

    Yes, Kramnik is in a class of his own. Corus will certainly be very interesting, will Kramnik be able to torture Topalov and Anand as cruelly as he did to Shirov and Leko.
    On Utrechtschaak, somebody compared Kramnik with the terrible Vlad dracul, who used to inflict unspeakable terror on his victims before killing them. It must indeed be terrible to be black against this Vlad.

  7. hayri on 19 November 2007 12:01 PM

    Kramnik is one of the greatest of all times that is a reality that everyone have to see! By the way how can you think that Topalov is in same class with Kramnik? Topalov is student of computer age (I don’t mean he cheats I mean he rised in a period that computer preperation became very important) but Kramnik is a student of classical chess echol and he is surely a genius player! The top of chess kingdom belongs to Fischer, Capablanca, Kramnik, Kasparov, Karpov and Anand for me.

  8. sss on 19 November 2007 19:37 PM

    Kramnik is the same age as Topalov! What ages are you talking about?

  9. whatever on 20 November 2007 13:10 PM

    Hayri r u kidding me? r u going to tell me that kramnik didnt use computer for his preparation?.. LOL! this is not a round robin tournament.. it doesnt reflect the person real strength. Linares will prove this next year.


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