Unification Dead

Kramnik: Generally speaking, I believe that the World Champion should be determined exclusively in a match. As for a candidates' qualification scheme it is quite acceptable to have it organized as in San Luis. For example, half of the participants according to their ratings, the other half through a qualification cycle. The knockout system proposed, actively agitated for, and imposed by FIDE has long since compromised itself. In accordance with the Prague Agreement of 2002 I am prepared to play in a reunification match. I've read comments in the press that Veselin does not believe I am a worthy contender for the title, given my relatively low rating as the basis for his argument. World championship and tournament performance are two entirely separate entities. I firmly believe that I am the real World Chess Champion. I won this title in a contest against Kasparov and later defended my title in a match against Leko. My title is legitimate and this was acknowledged even by FIDE in the Prague Accords. Should anyone, like Topalov, believe that he is stronger, let him beat me in a match.

Topalov: Topalov is not going to accept an unscheduled challenge by a player who is 60 points below him in the ratings list. Garry Kasparov agrees with Topalov and thinks the Bulgarian who won the FIDE championship ahead of the strongest active players in the world does not need to play Kramnik: "The schism in the chess world is over. It was brought about by the world champion not being the best player in the world. Now that he is, the matter can be closed." Topalov: "Kramnik is one of the best players of the last decade. However, he is currently number seven in FIDE world rankings, and I don’t think he has the right to challenge me. When I was the world's number seven player it never occurred to me that I had the right to challenge world's number one.” Topalov stressed that Kramnik had been invited to San Luis, but had refused to participate. Hence, in Topalov’s opinion, Kramnik has automatically lost the right to contend for the title. It is certainly true that five years ago Kramnik had defeated Kasparov. However, according to Topalov, Kramnik’s latest results do not provide sufficient grounds to have any claims for the title. Topalov: “There’s a big difference in our ratings. In chess 60 Elo points means a different class altogether. If Vladimir was offered to play against someone 60 Elo points below himself he’d simply burst out laughing. I do not believe we can play for the title because I’ve already won it here in San Luis. A Topalov-Kramnik match for the title is out of question, because FIDE has organised a two-year cycle for the world championship, analogous to the one we had in San Luis, where eight qualifiers will fight for the title. Thus the tournament shall determine the new holder of the Crown. That is the plan."

Kronsteen – McAdams, 1963

Continuing my theme of fictional chess scenes based on real chess games.

In the famous chess scene at the beginning of the Bond movie "From Russia With Love" we see Kronsteen of SPECTRE playing the Canadian McAdams. The score is 11½–11½. The scene is based on Spassky-Bronstein from the 1960 USSR Championship.

Spassky-Bronstein
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Bd6 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.d4 0-0 7.Bd3 Nd7 8.0-0 h6 9.Ne4 Nxd5 10.c4 Ne3 11.Bxe3 fxe3 12.c5 Be7 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Qd3 e2 15.Nd6 Nf8 16.Nxf7 exf1Q+ 17.Rxf1 Bf5 18.Qxf5 Qd7 19.Qf4 Bf6 20.N3e5 Qe7 21.Bb3 Bxe5

This is the starting position in the movie, except that the two White pawns on d4 and c5 were removed. Both the real and movie games continued...

22.Nxe5+ Kh7 23.Qe4+ (1-0)

However, what's odd is that in the original game, 22....Kh7 was not a blunder as Black had no defense. But in the movie, McAdams could have defended with 22....Ne6, which would not have worked in the position facing Bronstein.

So my question is WHY would the movie producers change the board position? Were they TRYING to make the point that Kronsteen could have been held off with calm defense, or am I giving them too much credit?

FIDE Championship (Final) Round 14

Results:
Topalov-Polgar, ½-½
Svidler-Anand, ½-½
Morozevich-Adams, ½-½
Leko-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0

The games
http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch14.htm

Final Standings:


Some things to note:

• Topalov was the only player to go undefeated, beating every other player except Anand by 1.5-0.5. His performance rating was 2890. At the end of the first half, he had scored +6 =1 for a performance of 3177 and was well positioned to break Karpov's record performance at Linares 1994, but in the second half he drew all seven games.
• Judith Polgar had a horrible tournament, losing 6 times and turning in a 2610 performance
• Morozevich and Polgar were the only players to get skunked (by Svidler and Anand, respectively).
• Adams (-3 =11) was the only player to go through the tournament without a single win.

FIDE Championship Round 13 - It's All Over

Topalov the winner with one round to go!

Results:
Kasimdzhanov-Topalov, ½-½
Adams-Leko, ½-½
Anand-Morozevich, ½-½
Polgar-Svidler, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 9.5
Anand, Svidler - 8
Morozevich - 6.5
Kasimdzhanov, Leko - 5.5
Adams - 5
Polgar - 4

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch13.htm

FIDE Championship Round 12

Results:
Topalov-Svidler, ½-½
Morozevich-Polgar, ½-½
Leko-Anand, 0-1
Kasimdzhanov-Adams, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 9
Anand, Svidler - 7.5
Morozevich - 6
Kasimdzhanov, Leko - 5
Adams - 4.5
Polgar - 3.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch12.htm

FIDE Championship Round 11

Results:
Adams-Topalov, ½-½
Anand-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0
Polgar-Leko, ½-½
Svidler-Morozevich, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 8.5
Svidler - 7
Anand - 6.5
Morozevich - 5.5
Leko - 5
Kasimdzhanov - 4.5
Adams - 4
Polgar - 3

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch11.htm

FIDE Championship Round 10

Results:
Topalov-Morozevich, ½-½
Leko-Svidler, ½-½
Kasimdzhanov-Polgar, 1-0
Adams-Anand, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 8
Svidler - 6
Anand, Morozevich- 5.5
Kasimdzhanov, Leko - 4.5
Adams - 3.5
Polgar - 2.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch10.htm

FIDE Championship Round 9

Results:
Anand-Topalov, ½-½
Polgar-Adams, ½-½
Svidler-Kasimdzhanov, ½-½
Morozevich-Leko, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 7.5
Svidler - 5.5
Morozevich, Anand - 5
Leko - 4
Kasimdzhanov - 3.5
Adams - 3
Polgar - 2.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch09.htm

FIDE Championship Round 8

Results:
Topalov-Leko, ½-½
Kasimdzhanov-Morozevich, 0-1
Adams-Svidler, ½-½
Anand-Polgar, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 7
Svidler - 5
Anand - 4.5
Leko, Morozevich - 4
Kasimdzhanov - 3
Adams - 2.5
Polgar - 2

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch08.htm

FIDE Championship Round 7

Topalov wins 6 out of 7!

Topalov won every game except against Anand. His performance rating stands at an amazing 3177!

Results:
Topalov-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0
Leko-Adams, 1-0
Morozevich-Anand, 1-0
Svidler-Polgar, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 6.5
Svidler - 4.5
Leko, Anand - 3.5
Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov - 3
Polgar - 2.5
Adams - 2

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch07.htm

FIDE Championship Round 6

Results:
Polgar-Topalov, 0-1
Anand-Svidler, ½-½
Adams-Morozevich, ½-½
Kasimdzhanov-Leko, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 5.5 (very impressive!)
Anand, Svidler - 3.5
Kasimdzhanov - 3
Leko - 2.5
Adams, Morozevich, Polgar - 2

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch06.htm

FIDE Championship Round 5

Results:
Svidler-Topalov, 0-1
Polgar-Morozevich, ½-½
Anand-Leko, ½-½
Adams-Kasimdzhanov, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 4.5 (nice lead)
Anand, Svidler - 3
Kasimdzhanov - 2.5
Leko, Polgar - 2
Adams, Morozevich - 1.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch05.htm

FIDE Championship Round 4

Four decisive games again.

Results:
Topalov-Adams, 1-0
Kasimdzhanov-Anand, 1-0
Leko-Polgar, 1-0
Morozevich-Svidler, 0-1

Standings:
Topalov - 3.5
Svidler - 3
Anand - 2.5
Kasimdzhanov - 2
Leko, Polgar - 1.5
Morozevich, Adams - 1

Aside from the chess, a great deal of entertainment can be had from reading the English version of the website, which is translated from the Spanish original either by a computer program or by someone with limited command of English. For example, in commenting on the Leko-Polgar game, the site says, "Leko changed his face and won, replacing himself on the race track." If you read the Spanish comments, this should have been translated as, "Leko about faced and won, placing himself once gain on the race track."

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch04.htm

FIDE Top 20

1 Kasparov, Garry g RUS 2812
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2788
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2782
4 Leko, Peter g HUN 2751
5 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2748
6 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2740
7 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2739
8 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2735
9 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2725
10 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2724
11 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2720
12 Adams, Michael g ENG 2718
13 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2717
14 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2710
15 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter g ROM 2707
16 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2707
17 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2707
18 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2704
19 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2704
20 Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2700

Notes:

• The top five are unchanged, although Topalov dropped 6 points, allowing Anand to claim the #2 slot by himself.
• Kramnik drops another slot, as he and Svidler trade places because Kramnik lost 5 points and Svidler gained 2 points.
• There's three brand new names in the 2700+ list: Nisipeanu, Radjabov and Tiviakov. And two players fell off: Kamsky and Bologan. So the 2700 club is up to 20 members.
• The top rated US player is Kamsky, at #23 with a rating of 2690 (down 4 slots and 10 points from the July 2005 list).