Chess
Leonard Barden
Saturday March 22, 2008
The Guardian
Monaco’s annual Amber tournament offers £165,000 prize money, so the elite rarely turn it down. Moreover, the format of blindfold and rapid chess does not affect world rankings, so in theory a bad result can be shrugged off.
But it could be different after this week’s game, where the world champion, Vishy Anand, sacrifices his queen to mate Vladimir Kramnik, who meets the Indian in a 12-game title match in October. Below Kramnik could have saved himself quite late, by 41 Qa5 Qxf4 42 Re1 d4 43 Be4+ Kf7 44 Bxh7 Rxh7 45 Qd8 when Black draws with Qh2+.
One cannot go too far with the concept that such a win can influence the coming match result. Of course Boris Spassky had beaten Bobby Fischer five times without reply after game two at Reykjavik 1972 and look what happened then.
Here is the full article.
While its true the tournament doesnt affect rating, it will be a psychological blow, especially since Kramnik lost in a rapid game against his main rival who he will be meeting in Bonn for the World Championship later this year. He may say it doesnt matter too much, but Im sure he’ll remember it come October…
Barden is right.
Another example is the Candidates match Petrosian won against Portisch in 1974. Before that match Petrosian had never won a game against Portisch, while having lost several.
In any case the previous score between Anand and Kramnik is fairly balanced.
Rapid games mean little in predicting classical chess results. Anand was supposed to be the best in the world at rapid. But this meant little when it came to classical games against Kasparov.
And Kramnik was not well for part of the Corus tournament. So I would not put too much store on that result.
And, be warned – don’t underestimate Kramnik in a match!
Everyone thought Topalov would beat him in 2006. Having seen Kramnik’s 2006 Olympiad performance, I wasn’t so sure, and predicted a win to Kramnik by one point.
I don’t think Topalov was so sure after that either – this is why he had ‘Plan B’ ready!
Overall, I think Anand and Kramnik are about equal in strength and basically have been since the early 1990’s (both far behind Kasparov).
But Anand has a particular problem here. If he does not find something convincing against the Petroff, and persists in playing 1.e4, he will lose the match. Will he change?
Kramnik is not unbeatable. But one has to fully engage him and keep the pressure on, something few players bother to do, giving him quick easy draws instead.
Fritz did, and the cracks started to appear!
I would very much like to see Kramnik lose this match. But I have grave doubts that Anand is the guy. I have never been overly impressed with Anand – look at his weak score against Kasparov.
With Kasparov’s retirement, we may have to wait for Carlsen.