The world champion goes down

World champion Vladimir Kramnik went knockout today in the ninth round of the WCC in Mexico. A marvellous Morozevich was needed; the Russian with the unique playing style acted orthodoxly unorthodox again with a g-pawn push in front of his king, but Kramnik quickly choked on it. Update: last video has been added.

Anand had drawn relatively quickly against Aronian and he became the big winner of the day after Gelfand lost a rook ending that should have ended in a draw. The Indian is now a point clear from the Israeli (who's still clear second) and 1,5 points ahead of Kramnik. The latter needs to beat Vishy with White tomorrow to keep chances of retaining his title.

Aronian's choice of the Marshall was to be expected and Vishy tried an original defense with an early Kg1-f2, but during the preparation he and his second Peter Heine Nielsen (who stays in the hotel room opposite to mine and who I've seen on several mornings in pyjamas with laptop and cables under his arm shuffling to Anand's room further down the hall) had both missed the important move ?¢‚Ǩ¬¶Qd7 that more or less neutralised everything.

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Almost all the chess fans were relieved to see Svidler answering Leko's first move with the Sicilian. The most popular defence against 1.e4 hadn't been played before at this tournament! Which has something to do with fashion, but also with the fact that Topalov doesn't play here. Anyway, Svidler regretted the fact that he still hadn't checked Leko's 12.Rg1 and was all by himself after 14?¢‚Ǩ¬¶Ne8. But fared quite well.

At the start of the press conference it seems there's thunder and (especially) lightning. This is because not all the lamps were on; later it gets better.

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The third game finishing today was Kramnik being punched. The move g2-g4 wasn't that powerful actually, but securely placed and it did made him stagger. His c5-c4 was wrong, as he noticed right after he hit the clock, and then it was just Moro punching and Vlad on the receiving end, till he could handle no more.

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For Anand the sun started shining even brighter when that other Alexander (Grischuk) won against Vishy's other competitor, Gelfand. Because of passive play Black had gotten into trouble but the rook ending was drawn. However, Black blundered with 56?¢‚Ǩ¬¶h3? where 56?¢‚Ǩ¬¶Kg5 should have been played.

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So tomorrow is the big game. As Macauley mentioned during dinner, a certain player in Bulgaria might even be routing for Kramnik, since then he'll get a title match, and otherwise he'll play the winner of Khanty-Mansyisk to qualify for... a title match. As a reminder: the world champion will play a title match anyway (at the moment this will be a Anand-Kramnik match in 2008). But still today he looked pretty disappointed.



Standings (click for bigger version):



Results/schedule:

Round 1: Thursday, Sept. 13th 2007, 14:00h Kramnik  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Svidler Morozevich  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Aronian Anand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Gelfand Grischuk  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Leko	Round 2: Friday, Sept. 14th 2007, 14:00h Svidler  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Leko Gelfand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Grischuk Aronian  0-1  Anand Kramnik  1-0  Morozevich
Round 3: Saturday, Sept. 15th 2007, 14:00h Morozevich  1-0  Svidler Anand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Kramnik Grischuk  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Aronian Leko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Gelfand	Round 4: Sunday, Sept 16th 2007, 14:00h Svidler  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Gelfand Aronian  1-0  Leko Kramnik  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Grischuk Morozevich  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Anand
Free day: Monday, Sept. 11th 2007	Round 5: Tuesday, Sept. 18th 2007, 14:00h Anand  1-0  Svidler Grischuk  1-0  Morozevich Leko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Kramnik Gelfand  1-0  Aronian
Round 6: Wednesday, Sept. 19th 2007, 14:00h Aronian  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Kramnik Gelfand  1-0  Morozevich Grischuk  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Svidler Leko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Anand	Round 7: Thursday, Sept. 20th 2007, 14:00h Anand  1-0  Grischuk Kramnik  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Gelfand Morozevich  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Leko Svidler  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Aronian

Second half

Round 8: Friday, Sept. 21st 2007, 14:00h Svidler  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Kramnik Aronian  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Morozevich Gelfand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Anand Leko  1-0  Grischuk	Free day: Saturday, Sept. 22nd 2007
Round 9: Sunday, Sept. 23th 2007, 14:00h Anand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Aronian Grischuk  1-0  Gelfand Leko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Svidler Morozevich  1-0  Kramnik	Round 10: Monay, Sept. 24th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Grischuk Gelfand     Leko Kramnik     Anand Svidler     Morozevich
Round 11: Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Morozevich Gelfand     Svidler Grischuk     Kramnik Leko     Aronian	Free day: Wednesday, Sept. 26th 2007
Round 12: Thursday, Sept 27th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Gelfand Kramnik     Leko Morozevich     Grischuk Svidler     Anand	Round 13: Friday, Sept. 28th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Svidler Grischuk     Anand Leko     Morozevich Gelfand     Kramnik
Round 14: Saturday, Sept. 29th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Leko Kramnik     Aronian Morozevich     Gelfand Svidler     Grischuk	Sunday, Sept. 30th 2007 Possible tiebreaks, closing ceremony