American Titan

American titan
CHESS
By QUAH SENG SUN
Malaysia Star – Malaysia

EVERY time I show this picture around, I always get asked about this person. He’s sullen, seemingly unfriendly and suspicious of everything and everyone around him.

Surely not a chess player? But of course, he is. That’s Gata Kamsky – formerly from the Soviet Union but now a naturalised US citizen; previously a challenger to the world chess championship title, and a contender again.

As you read this, Kamsky is playing Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria. They have been at it since Tuesday in an eight-game match to determine the player who will go on to meet Viswanathan Anand in a world chess championship match at the end of the year.

Eight games means a very short match. If you think that last year’s match between Anand and Vladimir Kramnik was short, this is even shorter. That means the players do not have much margin for error. If one of them were to lose a game, the match would be almost over unless the loser could strike back immediately in the next game.

So this match which is supposed to end on Feb 28, assuming that it lasts the full eight games, may finish well before this date. It will be a pity if the match ends too fast because by all accounts, this is going to be an exciting match with high stakes and involving two chess titans.

Topalov needs no introduction. Regular chess players will recognise him as one of the former World Chess Federation’s (Fide) world champions. Unfortunately in an acrimonious unification match in 2006, Topalov lost to his great rival, Kramnik.

One of the conditions of the unification match was that the loser would be required to play a special candidates match with the winner of the Chess World Cup 2007.

Now, Kamsky happens to be the winner of the Chess World Cup. He had gone through the 128-player knock-out tournament, eliminated the rest of the field and earned the right to meet Topalov.

Here is the full article.