Kramnik and the slav go way back. The big man himself got slayed in '96. See the attached game.

Considering everything I for one am immensely satisfied that the deserving player won, and on reflection I wonder if the actions of Topalov's team rebounded on him psychologically, as he seemed to make a lot of unforced blunders in this match.

Kramnik for his part proved mentally much tougher than I gave him credit for. This contest reminded me how enthralling and entertaining WC matches can be and I hope we have not seen the end of this format. 

Lets hope that Topalov and his team eventually realises that in the long run it is better to be a gracious loser than a despised undeserving winner.

Despite it all, all I can say is....

What a match!!

Topper

While the rather minor problem of a single World Champion has been solved the larger problem of FIDE & Kirsan still looms! I'M quite certain by the time Mexico City rolls around the chess world again will be torn assunder by the missmanagements of FIDE and certain 'self' serving GM's. The crisis for top level chess is far from over.......

Had to miss the last rapid game and was expecting a draw when I left - but I see Kramnik won!  It's great that the issue was decided over the board.

Under different circumstances I might have been routing for Topalov at the end, since his opening prep was clearly better and he emerged with a clear early middlegame advantage in most of the games (not taking into account today's games where this was not really the issue).  However, given the actual circumstance I think this was, for me as well as for most people, the only acceptable outcome.

I hope there is some chance there will be a re-match at some point (sadly, I guess this is not part of current FIDE agenda).  I'd like to see how such a match would go with more match experience for Topalov and less off the board controversy (in particular no forfeit points!).

The person who robbed Shirov of his rights was Kasparov, not Kramnik.

I've never quite understood why Shirov had no contractual remedies about that. I suppose he unwisely signed up with Braingames and it was their obligation to arrange the match rather than Kasparov's to play him come what may by way of sponsorship. And then of course Braingames (do I mean Einstein? whoever) disappeared in a puff of smoke, so there was no-one to sue,

Still, at least Keene and his crowd got paid, so there's something to be thankful for. Except, tragically enough, Levy, or so one gathers.

I'd have more sympathy for Shirov if he whined about it rather less, really. You sign contracts with a crowd like whoever-it-was, you understand you're taking a commercial gamble.

A sad day for chess.
Kramnik has hardly shown anything. One reasonable good game, game 10.
We now have a world champion who never succeeded in qualifying for a
Fide world champion fight, He got his shot by a very generous Kasparov.
Remember he never qualified for that match either (losing from a brilliant Shirov).

The fact remains that Kramnik never qualified for a title match, and had
no qualms to rob Shirov of his rights. So dont talk to me of a worthy
champion off board. As a worthy champion chesswise, show me his
brilliant games in this match.

Quote:


-- Topalov (From the press conference after game 12.)

Well I am back and sad to learn my man Topalov lost the last game of rapid. Congrats to Kramnik, I am glad that at least it did not go down to blitz, which would have been a somewhat embarrasing way to decide a World Ch!   

Today was a bit of a lottery in my opinion, and this kind of rapid-play torture is obviously no way to decide a World Ch, but Topalov has only himself to blame - in the Classical time-control I felt he had the initiative in the match throughout, but blunders cost him dearly - and these as I know too well are part of the game also  Chess is a cruel game in that respect, but we all know the territory.

As for Kramnik, my feeling is he has still not recovered his form completely, far from it in fact - his chess looked a bit stale in this match. He was put through the wringer though, so full respect for hanging in (especially at one point down when even his fans (but not me!) had given up on him). At the end of the day chess is a sport, and sometimes it is these sporting aspects such as character and determination (which I also believe Topalov has) are what is important.

We can only look forward now to the future - what now? I hope it is not the end of the traditional World ch matches, maybe a San Luis type tournament to decide the next challenger - I just havent kept up with it.