Kramnik will regain no. 1 spot

With Black against Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik soon headed for the draw but still the game was the longest of that last round in Moscow. The reason was Ivanchuk's sudden (and surprising) fighting spirit in an opposite-coloured bishops ending. The point was split anyway (just like in the other four games) and this means Kramnik will be the no. 1 in the world again on January 1st.

A great succes voor The Vlad, who didn't expect such a fine result after the tough world championship tournament in Mexico. In the interview with Robert Fontaine he stated that he will start to prepare for the match against Anand only after Corus. It's nice to see Shirov finishing clear second and a pity he won't come to Wijk aan Zee this year. Gelfand's tournament wasn't too exciting (drawing all nine games) but it's a good result in this field, just like Carlsen's. Besides Shirov, the best result was actually for Jakovenko. The rest of the field played slightly below par. All in all it was a very balanced, hard-fought event in which one player really stood out.



Standings after eight rounds:

  1. Kramnik                  6
  2. Shirov                  4,5
3-6. Carlsen, Jakovenko,
     Gelfand, Leko            4
7-9. Kamsky, Ivanchuk, 
     Mamedyarov              3,5 
 10. Alekseev                 3

The schedule:

10 November 2007               11 November 2007         
Leko       - Shirov     1-0    Leko       - Kamsky     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Kamsky     - Gelfand    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Gelfand    - Kramnik    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Kramnik    - Carlsen    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Carlsen    - Alekseev   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Alekseev   - Ivanchuk   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Ivanchuk   - Jakovenko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Jakovenko  - Mamedyarov ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Shirov     - Mamedyarov ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

12 November 2007               13 November 2007         
Kramnik    - Leko       1-0    Leko       - Alekseev   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Kamsky     - Shirov     0-1    Kamsky     - Kramnik    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Alekseev   - Gelfand    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Gelfand    - Jakovenko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Jakovenko  - Carlsen    0-1    Carlsen    - Mamedyarov ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Mamedyarov - Ivanchuk   1-0    Shirov     - Ivanchuk   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

14 November 2007               16 November 2007         
Jakovenko  - Leko       ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Leko       - Mamedyarov ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Alekseev   - Kamsky     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Kamsky     - Jakovenko  0-1
Kramnik    - Shirov     1-0    Kramnik    - Alekseev   1-0
Mamedyarov - Gelfand    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Gelfand    - Ivanchuk   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Ivanchuk   - Carlsen    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Shirov     - Carlsen    1-0

17 November 2007               18 November 2007         
Ivanchuk   - Leko       ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Leko       - Carlsen    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Mamedyarov - Kamsky     0-1    Kamsky     - Ivanchuk   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Jakovenko  - Kramnik    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Kramnik    - Mamedyarov 1-0
Alekseev   - Shirov     0-1    Alekseev   - Jakovenko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Carlsen    - Gelfand    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?    Shirov     - Gelfand    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

19 November 2007
Gelfand    - Leko       ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Carlsen    - Kamsky     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Ivanchuk   - Kramnik    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Mamedyarov - Alekseev   ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Jakovenko  - Shirov     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

Two videos by Robert Fontaine & G?ɬ©rard Demuydt of Europe-Echecs:

Impressions from the last round



Interview with the winner



It ain't over till it's over. In the meantime an amazingly strong blitz event has begun in Moscow, with 64 players in the preliminaries (Adams, Akopian and Ponomariov highest rated) who fight for only 6 spots in the World Blitz Championship (21-22 November). Yesterday were the first four rounds, today another seven. Already qualified are all Tal Memorial participants and the four wild cards Anand, Karpov, Grischuk (the winner last year, not Anand as I wrote earlier) and last year's runner-up Svidler.

Update: Chess Today corrects this information: "Those invited by the organizers are: Anand, Karpov, Morozevich, Grischuk, Svidler and all participants of the closed tournament except for Jakovenko and Alekseev who preferred to take a short break before the World Cup. (...) At the last minute Svidler withdrew due to illness and was replaced by Korotylev." And in the meantime, 7 players have qualified from the preliminary 11 double round Swiss ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Kasimdzhanov, Bacrot, Adams, B.Savchenko, Ponomariov, Dreev and Rublevsky.