Who will be the winner of the upcoming Anand vs Kramnik match?

It starts tuesday.

Sorry I had to check, its not monday afterall.

I really don't think Kramnik can beat Anand with the exchange slav. Whatever happened to the Catalan death-ray?

He played the Exchange Slav to get a quick draw to begin the match and then will spring a novelty or prepared line in the later games.

You might be right.

I'm more inclined to believe he thought he could squeeze out his extra pawn, and just wasted a game with white.

Did Kramnik recruit Leko to his camp to spice up his openings?! With these two working together I think we are gonna see a lot of dull games, unfortunately.

Why doesnt Anand keep the title in case of a drawn match after 12 games? The sitting WC has always enjoyed this advantage in the past I believe, including Kramnik who kept the title after only drawing his match with Leko some years back. Why is there so much favoritism for Kramnik?! This obvious favoritism for Kramnik ( and against whoever his opponent might be) is one of the major reasons I cannot like him nor pull for him. Anand shouldnt even have to play this match with him since Anand finished ahead of him in Mexico. If Kramnik had won in Mexico he would NOT have had to play a match with anyone, in effect he is given "two bites at the apple" and its NOT fair nor right. The chess "mafia" that Fischer always complained of exists and is still at work in the highest levels of chess and is ( imo ) one of the reasons Fischer didnt want to play anymore after he achieved his goal. When was the last world championship in which the title holder didnt keep his title in the event of a drawn match ?

Kramnik wins the title if he draws?  I did not know that.  That really stinks for Anand.  Especially since it is a shorter match than the traditional ones.

I believe it is ridiculous to give the world champion the title if he draws. However i completely agree that the russian chess politics are pulling a few to many strings and they aren't being that covert either anybody can see that this is unfair for Anand. Due to tradition i believe that anand should retain if drawn although had the game been made yesterday i would have a different system in place.

It should not be this short of a match.  It just does not work.  One win can prove decisive.  I like the old way (first to 6 wins) better.  Does not allow for draws in matches and forces people to try to at least win a couple.  The problem is that the matches tend to last a long time. (Karpov-Kasparov anyone?)

Kramnik doesnt win the title if he draws. They go into rapid and blitz games if everything is all square at the end. Just like in the Kramnik/Topalov match.

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I am speaking of tradition here. In the past the sitting WC kept his title if he drew in a WC match. When was this abandoned? I do know Kramnik himself kept the WC title when he only drew his match against Leko a few years back....it seems that as much as possible is being done by fide to help Kramnik win the WC. Ofcourse Kramnik fans seem unable to see this at all....not surprising to me at all.

It has been decided for future matches that it's not fair for the WC to keep the title if he just draws. It's nothing against Anand.

BTW: I'm not Russian so don't assume I'm biased. The username is just a combination of two English words.

Besides, isn't Anand supposed to have quite a reputation at blitz time controls? I'd have thought this setup would still favour him.

 If Kramnik had won Mexico he wouldnt be playing this match at all, so basically Anand HAD to finish first in Mexico AND then beat Kramnik in a match, just to keep his world title. You see no favoritism for Kramnik in fide? What about when he and Shirov played a match to determine who would play Kasparov for the title, Kramnik lost to Shirov , ( not winning a single game in that match ) but then played Kasparov instead ! Shirov had earned the right to play Kasparov but Kramnik played him instead. No favoritism? HOGWASH

I agree that it was unfair that Shirov didn't get to play Kasparov, but I thought that was due to funding issues.

You've gotta let that Shirov thing go Reb. That was totally Kasparov's fault and no one elses. We should really put that in the past.

I'm thinking FIDE is getting rid of the draw clause for this match because no one can decide who the champion is! I think (and I think most professional players think) that Kramnik is still the champ, while FIDE and another large group of people think it's Anand. It's the same situation they had in the last match.

THIS is the real unification match because finally FIDE is getting rid of their stupid tournament system so we won't have to go through this crap again.

I tend to agree. A match is much more convincing. The winner of this MATCH will be the true WC.

Wait......there is the pending match between Kamsky and Topalov too......the winner of that match will play the winner of this match for the title then, dont they ? Topalov isnt even supposed to still be in the running actually and yet he is. He was supposed to miss this cycle for the WC by missing Mexico and yet he is gonna get a crack if he beats Kamsky. While I agree that the WC should be determined by match play I also think it should be over more than 12 games. And if a tie breaker is used then it should be at the same time controls as the match imo, NOT rapid chess or blitz time controls......