Kramnik starts with the white pieces

Today's drawing of lots has pointed out that in tomorrow's first game of the 2008 World Chess Championship Match Vladimir Kramnik will play with the white pieces and Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. You can follow the match live at www.chessvibes.com/live. Here's a small report on the drawing of lots.

Tonight the drawing of lots was held at the Altes Rathaus in the old centre of Bonn. It took place after the players had signed the "Golden Book" of the city of Bonn, and after some speeches were held at the opening banquet by, among others, FIDE Honorary President Florencio Campomanes.









The short procedure of the drawing of lots started with two red boxes and two blue cylinders, all contaning small busts of Beethoven. (Note that Ludwig von Beethoven was born in Bonn.)



World champion Viswanathan Anand was allowed to pick a red box first, to determine who was allowed to pick his blue cylinder first. But the Indian picked a black bust, and Kramnik had the white one, so the Russian was allowed to pick a blue cylinder first. He kind of "won again", since the blue cylinder he picked also contained a white Beethoven bust!





This all means we'll have the following (update: corrected) playing schedule:

Name

Nat.

Rtg

G01 14/10

G02 15/10

G03 17/10

G04 18/10

G05 20/10

G06 21/10

G07 23/10

G08 24/10

G09 26/10

G10 27/10

G11 29/10

G12 31/10

Anand

IND

2783

0.0

Kramnik

RUS

2772

0.0