Boy, how things have changed in the 72 hours. Just a few days ago, people were saying Kramnik will draw the rest of his games and Topalov will not make a dent.
Now, people are saying that Topalov will roll on and Kramnik has no chance to survive. This is the same pattern as pro-Kramnik or pro-Topalov during the pottygate situation.
As I said from the beginning, just sit back and enjoy the games and be thankful that we have decisive results and exciting play. We are witnessing the best attacker versus the best defender. This match is FAR FROM OVER!
At this moment, the momentum seems to temporarily swing to Topalov’s side. But it could easily change direction in the next game. Don’t be so hasty in making judgment. That is why I do NOT take sides. I still do not know who will win. Didn’t Kramnik win the last game against Leko to retain his title? So do NOT count Kramnik out yet.
I gave them equal chances before the match when I was asked. The score is still 2 wins for each player on the board plus game 5. Kramnik won back to back game (1 and 2) and Topalov also won back to back game (8 and 9). It means that both are capable of winning or losing consecutive games. Kramnik will have White in 2 of the last 3 games including game 12. The best is yet to come! Enjoy!
Now it is time for Bulgaria to win against Holland, says Topalov 😉
http://www.veselintopalov.net/article/after-game-9
I hate to say this, but Kramink should have taken the advide of other GM’s and left the match. He has been too shaken up over Topolovs horrid tactics off the board. He is now mentally in no shape to play this match. I know he will sue FIDE but, I think that is too little too late. I have yet to find a single GM that supports what Topolov has done. I know no one will agree with this, but I would STILL stop the match. It just sickens me to see Topolov get rewarded by his beyond unsportsman behavior.
Well, at least now we know why Susan does not take sides. She is waiting for a proper mopment to jump the winner’s boat :-(.
An interesting picture. I have seen it before in the match that Topalov doesn’t stand up if he shakes his opponent’s hand…
Two factor will spell doom for Kramnik:
1) He is not able to cheat so much now that Topalov is playing so fast (with his pocket chess set –analog and thus undetectable– the same way he did on the match against Kasparov –Kasparov complained about Kramnik’s frequent trips to the bathroom too–).
2) Since he has to play for a win now he will collapse (he is only capable of playing for a draw).
Enjoy Kramnik’s collapse!
Well, please imagine two possible championship duels:
1. Topalov vs Topalov
2. Kramnik vs Kramnik
If young chessplayers have to watch the second variant, they will leave the chess forever!
for —– sake, what’s with this pocket set bull….
enough already
it’s tiring…gone off chess with all this stupidity…so much energy dissipated by people in a game…such clever GMs etc, yet their “sport” is in turmoil, can’t run itself, can’t get sponsors…except for the top-notch, or the human vs. computer stuff…for all the brain-power, only the super-GMs seem to do ok,…
—-
MS: What would you like to change in the world of chess?
DS: I would try to make chess a more professional sport. Grandmaster earnings are laughable, considering their effort. I remember after a Dubai Open, Sergey Fedorchuk and I relaxed on a beach: he shared 1st-3rd, I finished 4th. We drank some juice, and were both very happy. However, I could not help but feel that if we were two tennis players in this same situation, one of them would have earned $1,000,000, and another one $300,000. That’s more than a hundred times our prizes. Chess is not a professional sport now. Almost all chess players are only able to make a living; our earnings are incomparable to those of other sportsmen.
http://www.chesscafe.com/misha/misha.htm
This “pocket-chess-set-guy” is just trolling. Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY, can be that stupid.
Ding, dong the Drawnik is dead!
Is this a special portable chess set? I mean, can you set up positions really fast in it? Does it have some way of making the pieces appear 3d to help with the brain processes of visualization?
Hah!
Nice to see people praising Topalov!
Susan,
I love the “pottygate situation”. lol.
I think it will be very hard for Kramnik to come back because:
1. He is constantly bugged by the psychological situation of what “Topalov will come up with next”, “What will happen to my forfeited game”
2. He lost two games in a row.
3. Similar to a previous blogger. It is not easy for him to play for a win when 80% of the time he plays for a draw.
I think we have in Topalov a new breed of player. One who constantly uses psychology and over the board brilliance to subdue the opponent. Reminds me of Ali.
Kramnik is used to the old style of chess – “when you are in trouble change the opening” type of player.
I don’t know if Kramnik can cope with these new pressures.
If he does, I will be one of the first people to applaud him. But I doubt it.
I love the portable chess set theory! I just want to applaud the genius who developed it. It is just so much fun!!!
FYI, Kramnik drew match with Leko with kramnik and leko winning one match each and retained WC. Unless Leko wins, kramnik kept the title.
SO,please given a chance, kramnik is good at drawing always.
It’s over by +- 1.67 as Rybka would say.
“The score is still 2 wins for each player on the board plus game 5. “
More precisely, 2 wins for Topalov on the board, 2 wins for Kramnik from the toilet (literally).
Although the exact way this toiletgate fiasco has panned out is not the kind of WC news we really want, two issues have been highlighted that seem relevant to future WC matches. OnePart of the entertainment value is for those spectators physically present at the Match. Surely if a new norm started to develop, whereby one or both players wandered from the board for more than half of the durations of games, this would have to be challenged.TwoWhy not have terms and conditions that totally eliminate the possibility of cheating? Isn’t it unreasonable to expect World Chess champions and challengers to behave like gentlemen? All we can ask of them is to play games we want to pore over. Making the contest fair, on the other hand, should be the sole responsibility of the govering body.
I just wish I could rejoice more, wholeheartedly at Topalovs succes and great, imaginative chess.
Funny to see all these people coming out only after the 8th game, and starting to bash Kramnik in what a most low style. But no way to get rid of these a…s in this life, I’m afraid.
What comes to Kramniks state of mind, and to his recent losses: could it really be that those previous, relatively distant events still had such a major adverse effect on his play? Oh well, we can’t know everything about the case, as GM Polgar earlier pointed out.
Thanks for this visually pleasant, interesting blog & one of the best match-commentaries available.
Kramnik’s credo “Win from the toilet, lose by the toilet.”
Tiolet, blah blah, toilet blah blah blah toilet. Haven’t we heard those comments enough already?
Only “toiletman” Kramnik himself can make the toilet jibes go away by proving that he can beat Topalov at the board.
So far he has not shown any capability of doing that. Kramnik plays at 2800+ from the toilet and only 2700 or so at the board.
We want to see him play at the board and not from the toilet or even the rest room for that matter. If Kramnik and his anti-FIDE fans have their way, we would see a future world championship match where the players are cooped up in their respective toilets the whole game and have their assistants make the moves the players call out from the toilet. ha ha ha
As for old man Korchnoi, he has forgotten his own strong vehement protests when Spassky played from the rest room, appearing at the board only to make his moves in their match at Merano. Korchnoi was so shaken up by this behaviour that he lost 4 games in a row.
Now when Topalov complain against a behaviour similar to Spassky, Korchnoi spoke out against the protest. Korchnoi is getting senile alright.
We can see that chessbase-sponsored and Fritz-supported Kramnik is in for a real beating. So Kramnik withdrawing makes sense to chessbase as a way to escape from further humiliation and save face. Hence all those statements appearing in the chessbase site urging Kramnik to withdraw.
I won’t be surprised to see Korchnoi or Karpov playing Fritz for 100,000 Euros (give or take 50 grand) in the near future as a reward for services rendered.
Korchnoi isn’t getting senile, you’re simply forgetting the details. He objected to Spassky’s box play, yes, but he didn’t issue multiple press releases, accusing Spassky of baseless, unprovable crimes.
And being unbiased means refusing to make a judgment before the facts are in. It’s sometimes impossible to remain neutral afterwards. Either Topalov’s behavior is acceptable, in which case any Scholastic player who loses a game can run their opponent through the mud without proof, or it isn’t acceptable. There isn’t really a neutral position here. To be neutral on that question is to side with Topalov.
hi
about defending Korchnoi: you say he was not accusing Spassky in any crimes
These times they played there wasnt computers.
He would protest, be sure.
I would say that Kramnik’s toilet visits in terms of the number of times and timing, and his explanation to the Appeals Committee were unacceptable.
Topalov was fully entitled to question that pattern of behaviour. He doen’t need to prove anything.
Krmanik with his toilet behaviour brought chess and the World Championship event into suspicion and disrepute.
Just that Dainalov should have been more tactful with his words and approach. But as to the subject matter of the appeal itself, Topalov/Dainalov can in no way be faulted. Kramnik is the one at fault with this behaviour.
At least Topalov/Dainalov had the balls to complain unlike some guy named G.Kasparov when GK faced the Kramnik toilet treatment. GK whimpered but did not dare speak out against his personally selected fellow Russian opponent.