Round 9 – March 27, 2007
Blind
Carlsen-Kramnik 1/2
Svidler-Van Wely 1/2
Vallejo-Morozevich 1/2
Aronian-Anand 1-0
Leko-Ivanchuk 0-1
Gelfand-Radjabov 1-0
Rapid
Kramnik-Carlsen 1-0
Van Wely-Svidler 1-0
Morozevich-Vallejo 1-0
Anand-Aronian 1-0
Ivanchuk-Leko 1/2
Radjabov-Gelfand 1/2
Standings after round 9
1. Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2766 13.5
2-3. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2750, Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2779 11.5
4. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2744 10.5
5. Svidler, Peter g RUS 2728 10.0
6-7. Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2741, Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2733 9.5
8-9. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2690, Leko, Peter g HUN 2749 8.0
10. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2729 6.5
11. Van Wely, Loek g NED 2683 5.0
12. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2679 4.5
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Great to see Kramnik back in form. I hope it will last.
Just another conspiracy theory…
The discrepancy between Kramnik’s rapid/blindfold scores “proves”:
The reason Kramnik went to the toilet that often is that he plays better if he doesn’t have to look at the position!
Or maybe he has a magnetic chess set in the toilet… that explains the excellent ‘blind’ performance.
( anyway its too easy to scribble a chess diagram and pieces with just a pen )
Alternatively of course, anonymous 5.47, he could just lie on the sofa in the rest area and look at the position on the demo board. Seems easier.
Whoever decided Americans should start calling toilets restrooms can’t have thought of the situation where there is a toilet immediately adjacent to a rest area. Not the least comic aspect of this whole thing has been the confusion invariably caused by this.
Percy
Percy,
We would call that area a “lobby.” The only confusion is caused by a German chess website and FIDE both using UK English in their reports instead of using the international language, American English.
Clearly Kramnik spent a lot of time both in his private lobby, and in his restroom. Now that we see his blindfold strength when healthy, it suddenly does indeed become trivial that pacing helps him more than looking at the board.