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Kramnik dropping out of top ten?
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If Kramnik would lose his last round game in Dortmund and So beats Brunello, Kramnik will be down to 2760, the same as currently 11th placed Dominguez and 12th placed So. The latter would then be #10 on number of games tiebreak. Ponomariov has good stats against Kramnik, 3-1 in wins with white in rather few games, the loss coming more than 11 years ago. If Kramnik would lose the game he will have dropped more than 30 points in less than a dozen games.
A more probable result is a draw though, and that both Pono and Kramnik want this for them disappointing tournament to be over as soon as possible. That would put Kramnik on 2765 on the next rating list, with the Olympiad coming up next month.
Will Volodja enter the Olympics?
MSC157 wrote:
Will Volodja enter the Olympics?
It looks as if he is supposed to play second board behind Grischuk, but I don't know how late they can change these things:
https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014/teams
on Chessresults Kramnik is on board 1. (http://chess-results.com/tnr140380.aspx?lan=17)
Kramnik's games will always be one of the most amazing ones regarding positional play and technique. Studying his games and understanding the ideas, are always a treat. Will always be one of the greatest, even if his focus and results aren't the same anymore.
So already drew against Brunello, so no matter what happens in Kramnik's game later today he will stay at #10:
Reminds me of Schumacher' Season 2005 in F1.
Another loss for Kramnik today, and 2760 on the August list after +0-5=6 in the last eleven games. And then he had white in most of them, usually plays his best chess in Dortmund, had comparatively weak opposition, and just seems to be in horrible form. If he really will be first board for Russia in the Olympiad in less than two weeks he will need to quickly start to play better than he has the last months.
A small gap (11.1 points) opened up to Vachier-Lagrave in 9th, but then there's a dozen players within 20 points and the fight for a top ten spot just gets closer:
Anand was 9th earlier this year and seemed to be the one of them to first drop out of the top ten, but now Kramnik is just fractions of a point from doing it while Anand has advanced to #7. Neither Anand nor Kramnik were outside top ten the last 22 years.
Harry Potter is now #3 & 2801 on the live list. This means that if Vachier-Lagrave can maintain his rating the Sinquefield Cup will be the highest rated tournament in all of history at somewhere around 2805 average.
He will be BACK! 
Remember Radjabov? He dropped 80 points in only 8 months. He went from #3 or #4 in the world all the way down to something like a millionth.
Jul 21, 2014
0
#14
These guys will take a break and will be back in contention for top ten in no time! Although the competition gets tougher with the young guns not far behind it will be hard not to see them within the 2750 range.
It could obviously be quite temporary, but today it happened. The current situation with all player within 20 points in both directions:
Volodja did not play today?
Aug 2, 2014
0
#17
No.
| Bo. | 87 | Jordan (JOR) | Rtg | - | 1 | Russia (RUS) | Rtg | 0 : 4 |
| 1.1 | Basil, Alshouha | 2135 | - | GM | Grischuk, Alexander | 2795 | 0 - 1 | |
| 1.2 | FM | Samhouri, Bilal | 2256 | - | GM | Svidler, Peter | 2751 | 0 - 1 |
| 1.3 | FM | Mansour, Sameer | 2249 | - | GM | Karjakin, Sergey | 2786 | 0 - 1 |
| 1.4 | FM | Mohannad, Farhan | 2321 | - | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2714 | 0 - 1 |
Grischuk edging closer to 2800, four points left now.
MSC157 wrote:
Volodja did not play today?
Maybe he will play tomorrow, even if it's not too tough matches for the top teams then either. Russia's opponent Qatar has a decent first board player though in Al-Modiahki, with a 2549 rating.
In what may be the weakest Dortmund ever Kramnik had white in four of six rounds and is on a winless minus score. In his four latest games before that he scored three losses and one draw. He is down to 10th on the rating list, and Wesley So on 12th is only 8.8 points behind and could pass him tomorrow.
Kramnik will certainly not continue to play like in his ten latest games (four losses and six draws against for him unusually weak opposition on average), but it does look as if he could drop out of the top ten any day now. His position on the rating list is already his worst in 22 years. To which extent this is a temporary development or something worse remains to be seen.