Clash Of Generations: Kramnik Wins Simple Chess Against Wei Yi
Hello, guys!
Round 1 of Tata Steel concluded today, and we have three winners in the master's section: Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, and Anish Giri all delivered in round 1. I considered all three of those games to post, but I chose this one partly because Big Vlad is a former World Champion (the one who dethroned Kasparov!), still a very strong and consistent player, while Wei Yi is a young upcoming Chinese talent who many consider being Carlsen's next true contender for the world title. And I thought this was an interesting game, proving why Kramnik is the experienced ex-world champion in this matchup.
And I just realized that this is their first competitive chess game ever against each other!
Can Wei Yi successfully bring a World Championship title home to China?
As always, I will try and provide some coverage of all the segments, though it gets really interesting in the end. I hope you enjoy! And feel free to discuss in the comments section whether Wei Yi is indeed the player to beat Carlsen or not.
Here, White has three serious candidate moves. Qxd8, Nd4, or Bd4. The endgame is OK after Qxd8, though that Bishop on g7 can be somewhat of a fly buzzing in your ear. Nd4 is also alright, though it looks like White can run into moves such as e5. Bd4 was the move played, in which after some subsequent exchanges, the position was on the equal side, though slightly better for White.
