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| Jul-06-08 | | yalie: there is no surprise about the Van Wely invitation.
(i) Van Wely was (prob. is) Kramnik's second .. so is close to Henschel and the Dortmund organizers. (ii) With Nepo, Gusti and Naiditsch in the mix, Van Wely's 2677 is not a bad rating at all. (iii) Van Wely being in the tournament leads to other top players accepting lower prize money since they see some easy pickings. (iv) (iii) is a joke. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | Etienne: (i) But why all the others invites as well? Is he close to everyone? That might be, but the whole point lies there. (ii)2677 is not a bad rating at all, but that is not really the point. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | sheaf: <iii><iv>lol.. that was the most hilarious thing i ve heard in some time. I dont know, but vw is not that bad, how does it matter, the fact is that at this level its very hard to compete, bacrot was punchbag for a while. vallejo got smashed here and there. The fact is that to play at their level (leko, kramnik, ivanchuk) someone or the other has to take the beating. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | yalie: oops i forgot (v) and (vi)
(v) Dortmund organizers didnt want the ignominy of their man finishing last and wanted a safety net in case guys bust the painter's Petroff (vi) (v) is also a joke
oh, and <Etienne> Van Wely gets the Corus invite since he is Dutch. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | percyblakeney: For me the best thing with the tournament was following Nepomniachtchi's breakthrough. He was undefeated in spite of having four blacks, and defended well in difficult positions against Kramnik and Leko: Kramnik vs I Nepomniachtchi, 2008
Leko vs I Nepomniachtchi, 2008 |
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| Jul-06-08 | | yalie: Before people rush to glorify Nepo and Gusti and bury Kramnik, it is useful to note that Dortmund had announced the draw months ago. That allowed guys like Naiditsch, Gusti and Nepo to specifically prepare for their opponents, while Chukky, Leko, Van Wely and Mamedyarov were busy with Aerosvit, MTel, Baku etc. Kramnik was, of course pre-occupied with the games of You-know-who rather than GGUsti, NAiditsch etc. I think the only significant takeaways are Leko's noteworthy performance Loek's pathetic one Leko's was noteworthy bcos
(i) he had really regressed a lot in terms of results and himself admits he was in a crisis. With the rise of Carlsen, Radjabov & Aronian and the re-emergence of Shirov and Chukky, it was becoming hard to argue with certainty for Leko even being a top 10 player. (ii) he had no specific preparation having played Carlsen and at Yerevan just before Dortmund (iii) was Kramnik2000esque, in that he didnt appear to be in danger of losing any game (iv) he had an extra black
The Anagram of Leko was horrid bcos he lost games straight outa openings to pretty patzerian blunders |
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| Jul-06-08 | | yalie: oops <percy> you are right - Nepo's endgame defense was also noteworthy. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | percyblakeney: <Leko's was noteworthy bcos> (v) van Wely wasn't in his usual generous mood from the other rounds against him. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | percyblakeney: <Nepo's endgame defense was also noteworthy> Yep, with Gustafsson and Naiditsch one did get the feeling that their excellent preparation gave them some wins, while they messed things up against Leko (Gustafsson) and Ivanchuk (Naiditsch) when things heated up later in the games. Nepo felt more stable in that respect. |
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| Jul-06-08 | | Bobsterman3000: I think Van Wely gets invited because there's a shortage of elite-level Western European and/or Northern players. Van Wely seems to be the favored "western" representative in fields that are strongly Eastern European... |
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| Jul-06-08 | | Bobsterman3000: Think about it... without Van Wely in this field there's no one from West of Germany. Maybe the organizers could have invited Bacrot, Lautier or Adams instead, but I think they were mindful of geographic representation... |
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| Jul-06-08 | | malthrope: <percyblakeney: For me the best thing with the tournament was following Nepomniachtchi's breakthrough. He was undefeated in spite of having four blacks, and defended well in difficult positions against Kramnik and Leko:> Agree wholeheartedly <percyblakeney> ! :) He along with GM Gustafsson far exceeded our expectations. Especially that fact, as you properly point out, even with 4 blacks his defense held (he along with GM's Leko and Mamedyarov were the only three undefeated players)... :) GM Gustafsson too was also a pleasant surprise. For a spell he was the tourney leader! ;) As for the tourney winner - GM Peter Leko - I'm really glad for him! It's nice to see him back on top beating a few of his arch rivals and collecting the tournament trophy. For once even I felt the 'tension' this time at the Dortmund Chess tourney! :^) - Mal |
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| Jul-06-08 | | smaragdus: The organizers invited van Wely for only one, but lucidly clear reason, without the great Dutch, Kramnik would have been the punchbag here, no doubt the talented Kramnik evaded the last place, which he would have deserved, just because of the participation of the talented Loek... |
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| Jul-06-08 | | attica: <yalie: (iii) Van Wely being in the tournament leads to other top players accepting lower prize money since they see some easy pickings.> Surprisingly, there is no prize money at Dortmund.
This is mentioned in today's video interview with Leko at http://www.chessvibes.com/match/lek... |
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| Jul-06-08 | | maxfrank: "Although predictions are a dime a dozer:
Ivanchuk over Kramnik 70% (30% draw)
All others drawn in final round."
Intuition seems to have been on target. Also reasonable to suppose the Petroff won't be Kramnik's main defense vs. Anand. He may use it after the 4th game. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | Jole: Kramnik is definitely not playing at his best at the moment. I don't think that concealing his preperation accounts for his result and it pangs of conspiracy. Maybe it is his health, or maybe it is something else that we do not know of. Either way, I hope that he gets into at least some kind of form again soon because, if he doesn't, Anand is going to wipe the floor with him. Whether you want Kramnik or Anand to win, you'll agree with me because if he is playing at his current strength, the games will be of low quality and the match will be extremely lop-sided. Barring Kasparov, Anand vs Kramnik has been the match that people have been wanting to see for a long, long time and it would be sad if either of them turn up below top form. |
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Jul-07-08
 | | brankat: Today I went again through all 7 of Kramnink's Dortmund games. My impression is that he just simply was not in good enough form. Something that happens to every player. There is still plenty of time to prepare and make necessary corrections. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | Pjalle: Kramnik and Anand are over the top, it will be a WC-match between the 'has-beens', they should have arranged this match 8 years ago. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | percyblakeney: <if he is playing at his current strength, the games will be of low quality and the match will be extremely lop-sided> The upcoming matches in the FIDE cycle are 8 and 12 games long (that is 4 and 6 whites each...). I think anything can happen in such events, not only are the players fairly even, but they have teams working on preparation and novelties for months in advance. If Pavasovic can come up with a move (the day before) that ends up with Naiditsch beating Kramnik, preparation will surely be even more important in Topalov-Kamsky and Anand-Kramnik. Maybe as little as one single novelty will decide the matches. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | Xenon Oxide: I think Kramnik is truly not in form, and not just intentionally losing with the Petroff to confuse Anand. I think his openings have suddenly lost their power -- people are starting to avoid the Catalan when playing black (not a single Catalan in Dortmund by Kramnik this year), and the Petroff is just too predictable and tactical and thus too easy to prepare against. I think Kramnik will pull a surprise opening like he did against Kasparov. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | Xenon Oxide: Why are the World Championship matches getting shorter and shorter? Heck, even Corus and Linares is LONGER than the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!! Why can't they at least do 16 games? 12 games is clearly too little. The system just doesn't make sense. The Grand Prix participants will have to play 4 tournaments of 13 games, for a total of 52 <!!> games in order to qualify for the challenger's match, and the match itself is only 8 games?? Furthermore, it is one lopsided system -- the World Cup winner will just have to win a single tournament, while the Grand Prix winner will have to work his rear-end off in order to qualify. This is too complicated IMO. We should have a Zonals-Interzonals-Candidates Matches (knockout with NICE LONG MATCHES) system. It worked so well before -- why not now? |
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Jul-07-08
 | | Eyal: <Xenon Oxide: I think Kramnik is truly not in form [...] I think his openings have suddenly lost their power -- people are starting to avoid the Catalan when playing black (not a single Catalan in Dortmund by Kramnik this year), and the Petroff is just too predictable and tactical and thus too easy to prepare against.> Well, it does seem to be both things to a certain extent - not being in top form and some problems with the openings. Each is demonstrated by one of the Petroff losses - against Naiditsch Kramnik was caught by great opening preparation, while against Ivanchuk he knowingly entered a very slightly inferior endgame of the type he usually manages to draw without too much trouble - but not this time (of course, this has something to do with the quality of Ivanchuk's play as well...). Btw, Kramnik still deserves full credit for his fine game against Van Wely. Since the Dutchman performed so poorly in the tournament as a whole, people now tend to see Kramnik's win in that game as obvious and almost not worth mentioning; but when you look at the actual game you see that it wasn't the case of VW throwing it away by gross blunders. Of course he made some mistakes, but they weren't at all obvious and it took great subtlety of play by Kramnik to take advantage of them so quickly and decisively as he did. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | Red October: <Xenon Oxide: Why are the World Championship matches getting shorter and shorter? Heck, even Corus and Linares is LONGER than the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!! Why can't they at least do 16 games? 12 games is clearly too little.
The system just doesn't make sense. The Grand Prix participants will have to play 4 tournaments of 13 games, for a total of 52 <!!> games in order to qualify for the challenger's match, and the match itself is only 8 games?? Furthermore, it is one lopsided system -- the World Cup winner will just have to win a single tournament, while the Grand Prix winner will have to work his rear-end off in order to qualify. This is too complicated IMO. We should have a Zonals-Interzonals-Candidates Matches (knockout with NICE LONG MATCHES) system. It worked so well before -- why not now?
> according to Kirsn, sponsorship issues |
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| Jul-07-08 | | dTal: acirce, fogive me for another mistake, you should take out the loss to Adams in my statement. So in classical WC matches excluding FIDE knockout, its + against Yudasin and Kasparov, = against Leko and Topalov, - against Kamsky, Gelfand, Shirov. If you include friendly non WCC matches, add his wins against Illescas and Lautier, pretty impressive opposition certainly. |
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| Jul-07-08 | | percyblakeney: <The system just doesn't make sense. The Grand Prix participants will have to play 4 tournaments of 13 games, for a total of 52 <!!> games in order to qualify for the challenger's match, and the match itself is only 8 games?? Furthermore, it is one lopsided system -- the World Cup winner will just have to win a single tournament, while the Grand Prix winner will have to work his rear-end off in order to qualify.> Indeed, and this could be one of the reasons that the rating list has become more important lately. If you keep performing top results in top events you get a very high rating, while you can win the World Cup and qualify for a match partly by being lucky with the draw and winning some rapid games. Khalifman scored +3 in 20 games against lower rated opposition when he won the knockout, and Kasim won four of his final five minimatches in rapid tiebreak in 2004. In his Corus starts Kasim never reached a top ten finish, and he was winless last when he played Linares. With the current system players of Khalifman's and Kasim's level will increase their chances, while someone reaching 2850 and winning Corus and Linares every year won't necessarily ever get close to a title match. I read somewhere that the Grand Prix cycle was too expensive and that FIDE soon would skip it (I think someone in the Russian Chess Federation said it but I can't find the interview again so it's far from reliable), I suppose that would end up with the knockout being the only way to qualify for a title match. |
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Sparkassen Chess Meeting (2008)
