Anand playing cards, Topalov makes move
Hari Hara Nandanan, TNN
4 September 2009, 01:36am IST
CHENNAI: World No 1 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria has almost finalised his team of seconds while No 2 and defending champion Viswanathan Anand is playing the cards close to his chest with eight months to go for the World chess championship match between the two.
The run-up to the 2010 April World championship is more like the one before in Bonn where Anand’s team was known officially only a few days before the match. Topalov’s current status as the World No 1 and the overwhelming support his country’s prime minister Boiko Borisov has extended him by confirming the Sofia (Bulgaria) bid for the match, has given the Bulgarian the confidence to be transparent in his preparations.
Leinier Dominguez Perez (rating 2719) will be one of Topalov’s seconds, revealed a website. The Cuban, currently ranked 22nd in the world, has solid opening knowledge. GM Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgaria), who has been working with the former world champion for many years will certainly continue to work with him. Topalov is reported to be looking at Dutch GM Erwin L’Ami and Spanish GM Vallejo Pons to help him for the Anand match.
The news from the Indian camp is quite different. Not known for keeping close secrets, Anand has at least learnt his lessons from his experience of playing in many World championship matches and made his preparations for the Kramnik tie almost perfect.
His team was a revelation last time with a combination of GMs who helped him crush the Russian. Former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), his trusted second Peter Heine Nielsen (Denmark), Radoslav Wojtassek (Poland) and Surya Sekhar Ganguly were all 2600 GMs but they contributed greatly to his opening preparation, which made the ultimate difference in the match.
Topalov is quite unlike Kramnik and Anand will most likely pull another surprise in his team of seconds. While it is possible that he has already finalised his seconds, Anand will most likely continue with Nielsen and Surya Sekhar Ganguly for obvious reasons. Nielsen has been his second for a long time while Ganguly came to the party nicely at Bonn.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Who has better seconds?
“Who has better seconds?”
The one who wins at the end.
The answer is quite impossible. You can just try to find out some subjective points. But however – the more interesting question is this: Will Topalow be strong enough to beat Anand? My opinion: No, he won’t.
Okay
there’s one of the European Assizes ! nige short 2700!but Susan i havent even unveiled the Ultra-ColorCode Ranking System yet!! and they giving this guy points for winning a few games why? hehe. Im surprised he braving it out and actually bloged on the chessdrum,I thought their “elite” guys just Wanted to keep playing me on the icc with their low accounts! hehe.
The idea that Topalov is challenging for the World Championship again is just pathetic. He was throughly trounced by Kramnik but here he is again like a zombie coming back to life. Then we have Anand who was gifted the title by Kramnik with Kramnik having to challenge for his own title. How long must this insanity go on? The majority of people who still recognize Kramnik as the true World Champion need to speak out. A travesty seeing these also rans holding the title of Kasparov.
Speaking of which a great match is going to be played between Karpov-Kasparov for those who want to relive the great days of chess!!!
I completely agree with 1:08
Kramnik should play world championship matches until he wins. Thats the only fair thing to do, since he is the only one who beaten Kasparov in match.
After that FIDE must revert back to 24 game format with incumbent champion (Kramnik) starting with a 12-0 lead. This is completely logical because the challenger has to show superiority over incumbent champion to take the title away.
In accordance with tradition in case of a 12-12 tie the champion keeps the title. Completely logical.
This is what the great majority of chess fans thinks and this is how it must be done!!!
Long live Kramnik, the eternal champion!
Topalov has been Number One for the last few years.He has had the Highest ELO ever.
So what’s the problem with Kramnik?
Kramnik was crushed by Shirov.
Kramnik is at least 10 seeds down the ladder.
Not bad 3:53
Kramnik should play world championship matches until he LOSES.
Kramnik never lost the World Championship, he was forced to relinquish it by FIDE.
The match he lost was as CHALLENGER to the title that was rightfully his. This is psychologically huge.
Do you think Fischer or Kasparov would have agreed to play as the challenger to Karpov (after Kasparov won the first match)?
So, this is why Kramnik is still the World Champion in the minds of many many players.
This Anand-Topalov thing is pretty lame. Both of these guys have incredibly losing records to Kasparov. Coffeehouse chess from FIDE is what we get.