GMs’ prediction

Who will win? The opinion of top GMs (1)
22 April 2010, 19.32 CET By Peter Doggers

According to our poll on the homepage, the readers of ChessVibes think World Champion Anand is the clear favourite to win the match, by 69%, where Topalov gets 31% of the votes. But what do their colleagues think? Today the opinion of Dominguez, Gashimov, Grischuk, Karjakin and Ponomariov; tomorrow Aronian, Carlsen, Gelfand and Ivanchuk.

ChessVibes asked nine of the world’s best players what they think of the upcoming World Champion match. Who is the favourite? Who is the better player? And what about Topalov’s plan to follow the Sofia rule? Will this be to his advantage? In part 1, today, we get answers from Leinier Dominguez, Vugar Gashimov, Alexander Grischuk, Sergei Karjakin and Ruslan Ponomariov. Please note that the interviews were conducted a few weeks ago.

Vugar Gashimov: In this match, if I will bet, I will bet for Topalov, because he will play in Sofia.

Leinier Dominguez: For me it’s very difficult to say; I wouldn’t even give anyone a slight favourite or anything.

Sergey Karjakin: I think slight favourite is Topalov, because he’s playing in Sofia…

Alexander Grischuk: I think in Sofia Topalov is the slight favourite but I think otherwise the chances would be completely equal.

Ruslan Ponomariov: During the last few months Anand’s games were perhaps not so impressive, maybe Veselin played a bit better, but remember that when Anand played against Kramnik, before that he came last in Bilbao.

Here is the full article.