Kramnik also said Nakamura could be a contender for the world title--in five years when the rest of us have retired. Perhaps Kramnik's whole comedy bit about the first move of the game was intended to mock Nakamura. Kramnik is obviously feeling loose. He considers himself an artist so why not try some comedy. As they say, in every joke there is a grain of truth.
Kramnik tries his hand at comedy
Sort:
Hikaru Nakamura commenting on his game against Shirov at Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010. Nakamura had white. "I felt I had to win if I wanted to win the tournament." 1.e4 c5?! "In my must-win situation, this is somewhat of a mistake. A draw would have been great for him,so it was a bad decision not to play 1...e5."
These comments did not go unnoticed by Kramnik, who got in some wry little quips when annotating his own game with Nakamura later:
"I know Nakamura would play the Dutch, as I'm somehow known as a theoretician. Unfortunately I didn't have time to buy a book on the Dutch since the book stores were closed after I finished my game yesterday."
"Around 3 o'clock last night I was pretty annoyed. I hadn't found anything yet, and it's not possible you can equalize with the Dutch. Finally, I had a shower, where I realized that I just shouldn't take on e4!"
"I don't know where he went wrong; maybe his opening choice was wrong."
Kramnik-Nakamura, round 8 analysis
Then, after beating Magnus Carlsen, Kramnik continued:
“At the start of the game Magnus just sat there with his eyes closed to the point where I wondered whether he’d fallen asleep and I should wake him up,” Kramnik told reporters afterwards. “But, seriously, my guess is that Gary (Kasparov) called him beforehand and told him he should try 1. e4. In the end he came up with 1. d4, which was the wrong choice, I think. He should have avoided the Catalan, a line I have a great score with, no matter whether I play white or black.”
Video at Chessvibes.
with thanks to Musikamole and Ziryab for pointing these comments out.