re Anand's seconds, - check my message on the other WCh thread..

(btw I got a bit confused with 2 similar threads - shall we all revert to the new one since the WCh is about to start? - or a moderator could merge these 2?)

I'm not worried about the quality of this fantastic match-up.  Whenever we have the two best players facing each other in a World Championship match we get interesting chess.  I still go through the world championship matches from 1948-present.  Ok, I skip over Kasparov-Short and Kramnik-Leko for the most part.  But Kasparov-Anand is still interesting!

Speaking of Kasparov-Anand... This may lend some food for thought regarding how Anand prepared for that historic match.  Remember, he actually took the lead against Kasparov before Garri woke up and destroyed Vishy.   

Vishy has become a much stronger player, emotionally. And he will need every bit of that strength to defeat a healthy Kramnik.  I wonder how many different openings we will see in this relatively short match.  I expect that we may see two main openings against d4 (or 1.Nf3 followed eventually by d4) and 1.e4 lines by each player.

It would be fun to see something really baroque such as the Ponziani, but I think the most exotic line we'll see will be some sort of Scotch.  I'm really looking forward to this match, not so much for the openings, but for the battle of styles in general.

Both will surprise us but not so much each other with their opening repertoires.

One win will be enough for either to take the title.

Despite GM Yussupov's bubbling excitement, this match will be tedious, technical and as dry as the Kalahari.

I think that Kramnik may defend the Lopez if he views the 5 nc3 stuff in the Petroff as too risky - I am sure Vishy will try this line as it avoids the usual stuff. The Breyer in particular looks possible.

I am sure that Kramnik will have at least one surprise up his sleeve with Black- he used the slav v topalov when he was previously defending the nimzo, and of course the Berlin v Kasparov. 

I think you'll find John that Vishy has played the KID - see Miles v Anand for a real kingsize blunder . I think he's also played it in blitz. 

I read today on a ChessBase article with a Kramnik interview:

"Who is in your team? Who are your seconds?

My team consists of Russian grandmaster [Sergey] Rublevsky, French GM [Laurent] Fressinet and Hungarian GM [Peter] Leko."

While watching the Russian super-championship currently under way, I was wondering where Rublevsky has been lately, but Leko was surely a surprise to me!

Oops, sorry for misinforming you all - it's apparently 12 long games and not 8 as I mentioned 3 days ago. The odd thing is I cannot remember or find where I read the false news (it was rushing hour in the office - Friday).

Willempie wrote on 10/03/08 at 20:51:04:


Well, he said beating two people after winning the title, he didn't specify whether it was as reigning champion.  Botvinnik is allowed back in that way though.

On the other hand, if Kramnik-Leko 7-7 is a win for Kramnik, Botvinnik's 12-12 against Bronstein (1951) and Smyslov (1954) count also. So either way Botvinnik is still in.  (Given the default and all the schenanigens in the Kramnik-Topalov match, I personally count that as a clear win for Kramnik although it took tiebreaks)

Although since the list of champions who failed to successfully defend their title even once includes Capablanca, Euwe, Smyslov, Tal, Spassky and Fischer, so even defending once deserves some credit!