Round 6 – Friday the 19th
V. Kramnik – V. Anand
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov
P. Svidler – L. Aronian
V. Topalov – D. Navara
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov
What is your prediction? 
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Here are mine predictions:
V. Kramnik – V. Anand 1/2
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov 1/2
P. Svidler – L. Aronian 1-0
V. Topalov – D. Navara 1-0
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen 1/2
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov 0-1
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov 1/2
kram-vish spanish or sicilian?
kram-vish d4!
kram-vish 1/2-1/2
Rad-Rus 1-0
Svi-Aro 1/2-1/2
Top-Nava 1-0
Moty-Mag 0-1
Kar-Shi 1/2-1/2
W-TV 1/2-1/2
my predictions
kramnik-anand 1/2
radjabov-ponomariov 1/2
svidler-aronian 1/2
topalov-navara 1-0
motylev-carlsen 0-1
karjakin-shirov 1-0
van wely-tiviakov 0-1
V. Kramnik – V. Anand 1/2
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov 1/2
P. Svidler – L. Aronian 1/2
V. Topalov – D. Navara 1-0
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen 1-0
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov 1/2
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov 1/2
Melody
V. Kramnik – V. Anand 1/2
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov 1/2
P. Svidler – L. Aronian 1/2
V. Topalov – D. Navara 1/2
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen 1/2
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov 1/2
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov 1/2
average number of moves = 26
How do you decide who gets white against whom ? Looks kindof unbalanced doesnt it ?
– Vinay
can you say draw? the rest goes like this…
Radja-Pono 1-0
Svidler-Aronian 1/2
Topa-Navara 1-0
Motylev-Carlsen 0-1
Karj-Shirov 1/2
Wely-Tivi 1/2
fide has standard parings for each round for a round robin of 14 people. It is all set up ahead of time. And it is always the same.
However, they use a random method of picking the players to fit into the schedule. The day before the tournament starts the players get together and draw a random number out of a hat. That number is put onto the schedule and you find out who you play each day. it is all fairly done because the players pick their random number.
This schedule then determines who plays who each day and what the colors happen to be.
Fide has this for all kinds of tournaments. You can look up the schedule in the rules book or online.
I hope I have not made any errors in my explanation.
V. Kramnik – V. Anand 1/2
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov 1/2
P. Svidler – L. Aronian 1-0
V. Topalov – D. Navara 1/2
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen 1/2
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov 0-1
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov 1-0
anon: the pairing is as ballanced as possible. Each player has either 7 whites and 6 blacks or 6 whites and 7 blacks throughout the whole tournament. For more details about the system of pairing see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament (or search google)
As balanced as possible …
Topalov has 7 whites. Anand and Kramnik each have 6.
Topalov has white against Anand *and* against Kramnik.
Anand has black agains Topalov (obv.) *and* Kramnik.
A further sign of Danailov’s influence ?
icebear…
This is just a chance. All the participants know the rules and have participates in the draw. Don’t try to find mysteries where they don’t exist… The strange things already happened in Elista and we all know that not Topalov but Kramnik was suspicious and was acting provocatively and unfair!!!
By the way…have you heard of the idea that Chance and Luck help only the Better ones…?
KA 1/2
RP 1-0
SA 1/2
TN 1-0
MC 1/2
KS 1/2
VT 1/2
Banjanx
chance and hope only helps the better ones??…i hope you dont meen as topalov beeing the better one do you??becouse if you forgot kramnik beat topalov in elista and is now the unified world champion of the world, and on top of that kramnik beet topalov with him bitching thru out the hole match that kramnik was cheating by using a computer!
why do some people still question if kramnik is better than topalov???
i thort that was settled, wasnt it??
Why didnt anyone predict a decisive result for Kramnik vs Anand???
I’m predicting black wins….
V. Kramnik – V. Anand 0-1
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov 0-1
P. Svidler – L. Aronian 0-1
V. Topalov – D. Navara 1/2-1/2
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen 0-1
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov 0-1
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov 1/2-1/2
If you look at Kramnik’s behaviour since 2000, it is quite clear that he is the Worse One.
How come, then, that Kramnik won at Elista…? Well, Divine Good decided that Kramnik needed to be unified World Champion for a reason…
And it became clear at Kramnik’s next event.
A WORLD CHAMPION left a mate-in-one on in an equal position when not in time pressure!!
This is an absolute, utter humiliation that Kramnik will never live down and will haunt him for the rest of his life. An incident that will stand forever in the record books, to be brought up over and over again.
Thus has Divine Good administered her justice!
V. Kramnik – V. Anand 1/2
T. Radjabov – R. Ponomariov 1/2
P. Svidler – L. Aronian 1/2
V. Topalov – D. Navara 1-0
A. Motylev – M. Carlsen 1/2
S. Karjakin – A. Shirov 1/2
L. van Wely – S. Tiviakov 1/2
Don’t you find Topalov is playing like a machine ?
wtf is divine good???
(i know divine brown but not divine good)
>> Don’t you find Topalov is playing like a machine ?
No, I don’t.
Hi Susan, are you ready for analyses? Have your coffee and we’re waiting !
One game is Kramnik-Anand, will you analyse Radjabov’s game as well? Please do.. GO RADJABOV !!!
Melody, Montreal
hi chess 44. chess games are not decided by supernatural powers but by playing strength. kramnik defeatet topalov and so he’s the champion it’s easy, no mystery, no allmighty. even when it’s hard to accept for you
Even Barcelona cares if the match is on Nou Kamp or not!!!!
So think on this before stating that Kramnik won against Topalov in a fair match without external factors influence.
Go to:
http://chesspro.ru/_events/2007/weik10.html
for a very true photo of Kramnik making a draw with Ponomarev
Susan couldn’t get up !
“So think on this before stating that Kramnik won against Topalov in a fair match without external factors influence.”
can you please explain these “external factors´” that made topalov lose? i always thought he was beaten by kramnik not by “something” else.
and lets take a look at your homecourt advantage thesis: is that the reason for van wely beating everyone at wijk? oh srry that’s radjabov; so wijk aan zee is in azerbaijan, right?
OK 🙂
Then there should be no problem of another match for the World Champion title – this time in the home country of Topalov…
But… it seems there is something worrying Kramnik of this idea
Tough to imagine what objection Kramnik could have to playing Topalov anywhere, really. The guy behaved so beautifully last time, after all, and has conducted himself with such dignity in interviews since.
“Then there should be no problem of another match for the World Champion title – this time in the home country of Topalov…”
that would definetly be interesting. let’s see if they can organize that. unfortunately it seems the topalov guys cannot find an bank accepted by the fide.
oh i forgot, kramnik controls the fide, is this what you are trying to say?
that would definetly be interesting. let’s see if they can organize that. unfortunately it seems the topalov guys cannot find an bank accepted by the fide.
oh i forgot, kramnik controls the fide, is this what you are trying to say?
hmmm
That is an interesting thought that came into your mind.
You see – the whole thing in elista was settled for Kramnik to win.
Now FIDE don’t accept bank guarantees – they are losing time … Can you please remind me where exactly is the requirement for the Bank written. If there is no such rule then FIDE should accept the bank guarantee – everything else is playing around the bushes and wasting time so that the match date is delayed too much and the match can not be played because of the coming world championship in Mexico. And we know that Topalov can not participate in it due to the strange FIDE championship organization.
Reference – the bank that Topalov uses is the prefered bank by the Bulgarian government and president.
“You see – the whole thing in elista was settled for Kramnik to win.”
no comment needed
what are we talking about??
kramnik and topalov??
which one is better?
well.. in elista it was proven that kramnik is better and he is no the unified world champion;)
Hi to you, too, Anonymous 7:08:20 AM.
With an hour to go (at the time) to the start of Round 6, and this thread therefore nearly otherwise exhausted, I decided to have a wee play on a previous poster’s comment.
As a matter of fact, I did not (unlike most) consider Kramnik weaker at the start of the match and made a prediction at the time on this blog of a one-point victory for Kramnik (not bad, eh?).
As for Kramnik’s victory being hard to take, well at the start of the match I didn’t really care very much because I wasn’t very happy with Topalov either, because of his support for Ilyumzhinov’s re-election; and I considered the prospect of a Radjabov match an outrage. [Noticeable that now Topalov no longer has the power of being World Champion that it is he who is starting to get the runaround from Ilyumzhinov…] After Toiletgate, however, I much wanted Topalov to win as a Topalov victory would have caused huge problems for Ilyumzhinov and might even have threatened his position (sigh).
My beef with Kramnik (a serious one) is principally his refusal to offer a reasonable means for Kasparov to qualify to become his challenger. Dortmund 2002 was not reasonable. It’s format was largely similar to the FIDE Championships of the time which Kramnik had condemned. How hypocritical is that? I believe Kramnik deliberately insisted on this format in the hope that Kasparov would refuse to play (which is what happened). To me this is unforgiveable, on a par with Alekine’s refusal to grant Capablanca a rematch.
How anybody with any morality could support Kramnik after this baffles me. If any Kramnik supporter can explain to me how what Kramnik did is either moral or reasonable, go right ahead. [Possibly Susan is sick of this argument, but this thread is probably about dead now anyway.]
What on earth are you talking about, chess44? Dortmund was absolutely nothing like the FIDE knockout events, and in any event was not Kramnik’s exclusive design but a compromise between the competing parties. Kasparov didn’t refuse to play because of the format; he refused to play because he thought he deserved more favours than mucking in with everyone else. He was granted them at Prague, and then couldn’t make his side of that happen (largely due to the fact that Pono and then FIDE behaved like idiots, but that’s another story).
Kasparov did chess a great disservice and, as he later admitted himself, made a huge mistake by going outside FIDE in 1993 for more money and more power. That damage had to be rectified as the first priority. Kasparov didn’t do that. Kramnik did. That was because Kramnik showed himself willing to be sufficiently patient and to go in for the necessary politics to get reunification. Kasparov threw toys around and shouted. If Kasparov hadn’t been such a berk, he could have played San Luis, won it and got his reunification match that way.
To anonymous 10:41:57 AM:
Dortmund had semi-finals and finals that were knockout mini-matches of 4 games. Seems a lot like FIDE to me. The final was even shorter than the FIDE one! How is this a reasonable way to conduct a serious qualifying event?
The lead-up to the semi-final was so stupid as to be about an equivalent to a knock-out. The eventual winner, Leko, was all but knocked out at this stage by losing his first game! Just one game!! Completely absurd and virtually random.
The format was Keene’s design, but it was Kramnik who accepted it (his choice, after all) and then absolutely insisted on it.
There was no compromise. Where do you get this from? The format was announced on 15 July 2001 and was a complete bombshell to Kasparov and everybody else.
Kasparov did refuse to play primarily because of the format. See Seirawan’s articles of the time.
Kasparov was NOT demanding any favours BEFORE the 15 July 2001 announcement. This is a common misperception. Only AFTER the announcement of an unreasonable format did Kasparov start making noises about alternative arrangements. You may hate Kasparov, but please check the facts. (Indeed I wonder if nearly all Kramnik supporters only support him because they hate Kasparov.)
It may be that breaking with FIDE was a mistake (in retrospect). It was not so clear at the time. It was FIDE that was doing chess the great disservice by its reprehensible conduct at that time. They were really asking for something like this.
And now that the title’s unified, it’s not like FIDE is doing a great job with it. In fact many Kramnik supporters are demanding that Kramnik do a break with FIDE by not playing in Mexico. How ironic!
I don’t hate Kasparov at all. He has great qualities. So does Kramnik. When it came to unifying the title, it was Kramnik’s that were required.
It wasn’t Kramnik who announced Dortmund, it was FIDE. Of course it was a compromise, between FIDE, the organisers (Lutz FFS), Kramnik and for all we know others. And of course it wasn’t ideal. But it was the best that could be done. If Kasparov had just shut up and taken his chance in it, we’d all have been a lot better off.
Of course FIDE have been useless for many years and are now, but that’s a given. And let’s just wait and see about Mexico, shall we? Patience and politics. Kramnik hasn’t leaped out there making any stupid announcements, and why should we. All he’s said so far what virtually everyone thinks, which is that Mexico is a damned stupid idea.
If you think that FIDE announced Dortmund, you seriously do not know what you are talking about. It was, of course, Kramnik’s outfit, Braingames (or its successor). FIDE had no connection whatever. This event was in direct opposition to FIDE’s version of the title.
There was certainly no compromise. The format was not discussed with anybody. The announcement was a complete surprise to everybody. After an almost universal outcry and condemnation, they changed the semi-final from 2 games(!) to 4 games and absolutely refused to do anything else. Wow! Big compromise!
By the way, Kramnik was not willing to unify the title. In fact Kramnik torpedoed it just when it was getting close in 2004 by saying he would refuse to play the winner of Kasparov-Kasimdzhanov, thus breaking the Prague agreement which he had signed.
By refusing to play in the 2005 San Luis World Championship tournament (thus again refusing to unify the title), Kramnik was shunned by nearly all the top GMs and his position became very weak.
Thus he was desperate to get the match with Topalov, indeed so desperate that he signed the agreeement to play in Mexico if he became Champion. If he thought it was a ‘damned stupid idea’, this shows how desperate he was.
Now, of course, no one knows whether he will break his word yet again.
What a great guy!