So far the final match is boring

Ruslan PONOMARIOV: “SO FAR THE FINAL MATCH IS BORING”

The second game of the final match Gelfand vs. Ponomariov was drawn. This is the traditional press conference after the game:

– B.G.: The “Catalon” opening was played today, which was led to the “stone wall” variation of the Dutch defense. It brought us to a tough and flexible fight. I did not see a concrete plan of further development in the endgame. Ruslan did not see it either. I offered a draw and he agreed.

– R.P.: To my mind it was the only reasonable end. It is strange: it seemed that there are a lot of pieces on the board still, but all useful moves were already made. In such a position a draw is a logical result.

– Boris, why were you playing so slowly today?

– B.G.: I could keep my opponent in a deadlock only by making precise moves. I was trying to find some variations to puzzle Ruslan. But I did not manage.

– How did you estimate the final games of the Cup?

– B.G.: So far it is equal. We came back to the formula which we used during first 6 rounds. The two last Rounds will decide everything. In extremis we will play the tie breaks.

– R.P.: So far the final match is boring. We don’t manage to have interesting games, to create new combinations, to keep an opponent under tension.

– Do you follow the tournament in London ?

– R.P.: Yes, I follow some games. Internet considerably quickens the exchange of information. Do you remember an old story of the match Korchnoi-Polugaevsky? Before a decisive game Korchnoi prepared an interesting opening idea. In the day of a game, his second bought a morning newspaper and saw that the same idea was already used in a tournament which was taking place at the same time. The question was: should they use the novelty or not? They decided positively. The reasons were: Polugaevsky does not wake up early. And the head of the Soviet delegation would not spend the foreign currency to buy a newspaper. As a consequence, an opponent would not know about the used novelty. And now? You had hardly used a novelty when it had been already analyzed online.

– B.G.: An instructive story. I remember in 80s I was in Moscow and struggled to get into the files of the Central Chess Club to see the games of big tournaments. It is a fortune to get in there! You had to tell how talented you are, how important it is for you. Even they wrote some letters from Minsk : please, let Boris have an access.

http://www.ugra-chess.ru/eng/interv_49.htm