David Bronstein
Dec 8, 2006
One of the 'greats' of the world of chess has died: David Bronstein, who came within a draw of becoming world champion in 1951. See his obituary in the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/crosswords/chess/07bronstein.html
(what a mouthful), and the write-up of his career in the entry 'Uncrowned chess kings', A2100754. His style was risky, bold and imaginative - if ever they get a computer to play like him, I will accept that it will have passed the 'Turing Test'. Not yet though...
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Vladimir Kramnik is world champion
Oct 13, 2006
A good day for the world of chess. Vladimir Kramnik, the 'classical' chess champion, beat Veselin Topalov, the 'FIDE' (World Chess Federation) champion, to unify the chess world for the first time since 1993. Kramnik had won his 'classical' title in matchplay against the previous champion, whereas Topalov's 'FIDE' title had been won in an elite tournament of the world's best players.
Kramnik took everything Topalov (and arguably the match referees) threw at him, to prove himself a true champion. He won three games in the main match and defaulted one, which was awarded to Topalov, who also won two games. Then he won two games in the tie-break to Topalov's one.
The official records will say that the main match was drawn 6-6 (i.e. +3-3=6) but the decision of 'FIDE' to award a 'free' game to Topalov, was not considered a good decision except perhaps in Bulgaria, Topalov's home country. Kramnik failed to turn up for the fifth game after the referees announced a sudden change in the playing conditions - the so-called 'toilet controversy' - which seemed to onlookers to be unfair. The change was reversed, but surprisingly the game was not annulled.
Kramnik's reaction, to play on - albeit under protest - rather than walking away in disgust immediately won him immense goodwill among chess-players worldwide. His victory is a popular one. After equalising the main match he won the tie-break 2.5-1.5 (+2-1=1), so the final score was 8.5-7.5 (+5-4=7) to the Russian.
'FIDE', the World Chess Federation, organised an exciting match and has probably emerged a winner in the end. It might easily have been different, if the defaulted game had emerged as a factor in the final result.
Kramnik is a worthy champion. But Topalov is a great player, the world no.1 in recent months, and he will be back.
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On the road
Jul 1, 2005
I'll going away for a couple of weeks. The mountains and hills of the north are beckoning. This means I won't be online until the second half of July. I might manage the occasional comment - if the weather isn't too good...
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Chess championship
Oct 19, 2004
Big news in the world of chess: Vladimir Kramnik won the final game of the World Championship title match against challenger Peter Leko yesterday (18 October 2004), and thus held onto his title by the narrowest possible margin at the last possible moment.
This match had a high quota of 'grandmasterly' draws, including one especially pointless game of only 17 moves. But there were four fine wins, at least two other exciting games, and a notable absence of obvious mistakes by either player - with the possible exception of over-risky play by Kramnik in game no.8, although Leko's refutation was correspondingly impressive.
See alterations to the entries, 'The World chess champions', A1308890, and 'Uncrowned chess kings', A2100754.
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