Anand Beats Kramnik In No Castling Match
GM Viswanathan Anand defeated GM Vladimir Kramnik 2.5-1.5 in a four-game No Castling chess match in Dortmund, Germany. Anand's win in the first game was decisive in this event where the players were not allowed to castle.
The idea for this match originates from DeepMind's latest paper, co-written by Kramnik, in which the self-learning chess engine AlphaZero was used to explore the design of different variants of the game of chess with different sets of rules. One of the variants discussed—many of which you can try on Chess.com yourself!—was No Castling. DeepMind also supported the match between Anand and Kramnik and plans to sponsor the event next year as well.
The match saw all four games starting with 1.c4, with Black responding 1...c5 in the first three before Anand tried a Tarrasch setup in game four. There was a lot of exciting chess, but the first game turned out to be the decisive one.
All games
The match was part of the annual chess festival in Dortmund, which has been held annually since 1973 and was only skipped last year due to the pandemic. There was also a closed tournament this year called the "Deutschland Grand Prix." The winner was GM Pavel Eljanov with 6/9.
Final Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Eljanov,Pavel | 2671 | 2743 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6.0/9 | |||
| 2 | Kollars,Dmitrij | 2607 | 2708 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 5.5/9 | 24.5 | ||
| 3 | Fridman,Daniel | 2608 | 2708 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5.5/9 | 22.75 | ||
| 4 | Kamsky,Gata | 2658 | 2625 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.5/9 | 20.25 | ||
| 5 | Ponomariov,Ruslan | 2631 | 2628 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.5/9 | 20.25 | ||
| 6 | Meier,Georg | 2628 | 2628 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.5/9 | 20.25 | ||
| 7 | Keymer,Vincent | 2591 | 2632 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 4.5/9 | 18 | ||
| 8 | Kasimdzhanov,Rustam | 2662 | 2586 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 4.0/9 | |||
| 9 | Heimann,Andreas | 2599 | 2511 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 3.0/9 | 13.75 | ||
| 10 | Bartel,Mateusz | 2626 | 2508 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 3.0/9 | 11.75 |
All games
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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