Kramnik wins again, point clear

By beating Evgeny Alekseev convincingly today, Vladimir Kramnik has extended his lead in Moscow to a full point. It’s clear that some of the players who participated in Mexico, are still making use of their months of hard work, and Kramnik is certainly one of them. He didn’t exactly know the name of the variation, but he sure knew how to play it with White. The other winners of today were Shirov, who played a great game today and beat Carlsen, and Jakovenko, who needed 90 moves to bring down Kamsky.

Standings after six rounds:

  1. Kramnik                     4,5
  2. Mamedyarov                  3,5
3-7. Carlsen, Shirov, Leko,
     Gelfand, Jakovenko           3
8-9. Alekseev, Ivanchuk          2,5
 10. Kamsky                       2

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

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

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

Interview with Vladimir Kramnik

Interview with chess legend Yuri Averbakh