Russian chess grandmaster Kramnik sets Guinness world record
Today, 03:13 PM
Russian chess grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik has set a Guinness world record for winning the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund for the ninth time, Russian website NewsRu.com reports.
Kramnik won the 2009 Sparkassen Chess Meeting by beating Arkadij Naiditsch in the last round. The Russian, who clinched his 9th title in Dortmund, finished a full point ahead of Carlsen, Leko and Jakovenko.
The Sparkassen Chess Meeting took place July 2-12 in Dortmund, Germany. Carlsen, Jakovenko, Kramnik, Leko, Bacrot and Naiditsch played a double round-robin. The rate of play was 40 moves in 100 minutes + 50 minutes for 20 moves + 15 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment per move from the start.
What started as a dreary tournament eventually finished with three very entertaining rounds. In the last match Vladimir Kramnik beat 2005 winner Arkadij Naiditsch to finish a full point ahead of his rivals, as the Carlsen-Bacrot and Leko-Jakovenko matches both ended in draws.
Kramnik has shown excellent preparation at this tournament and in the last round showed innovative gamesmanship against Naiditsch. It was a slight improvement over Leko’s play of just two days ago which should technical prowess, although it did not pose too great a threat to Kramnik.
The former World Champion played another strong game, took the full point and showed that he was the strongest in Dortmund this year – again, for the 9th time.
Here is the full story.
Kasparov won Linares 9 times too. And while Dortmund is a super strong tournament, it can’t quite compare itself to Linares.
The greatest joke of them all is Leko. Nine games drawn, eight of them in less than 30 moves. Why do they keep inviting him? It is ridiculous.
Guiness World record holders get money for their feats. I realy doubt there was a Guiness representative in Dortmund to verify his result.
“Why do they keep inviting him? It is ridiculous.”
Maybe he offers other “special services” that others do not.
“Why do they keep inviting him? It is ridiculous.”
3 reasons:
1-He has a relatively high rating
2-He was a World title contender in 2004 where he tied with the champion (Kramnik) and therefore has (still) a good name and strong reputation
3-He has obviously a good manager
This is really suspicious and should be uninvestigated. Why does he only win in Dortmund? My guess is that there is some ideal configuration that allows him to receive computer assistance without detection. I hope Danialov takes the issue up, especially if Kramnik will be challenging for the World Title after Topalov beats Anand this year.. These issues are easier to root out before the World Championship match.
Of course he has a high rating but what is it good for when he is not willing to show that it is justified by actually PLAYING chess?!
“Of course he has a high rating but what is it good for when he is not willing to show that it is justified by actually PLAYING chess?!”
Again a very simple answer to this:
Tournament organizers want to reach a very high category for their event in order to get good publicity, therefore the rating of the players IS important to them. That’s why Leko will replace Anand in the upcoming Nanking tournament BTW.
Leko should NOT play in China, should NOT replace Anand. That should be ARONIAN!
“Leko should NOT play in China, should NOT replace Anand. That should be ARONIAN!”
NO! it should be RICE-A-RONI!!!
It is the San Fransisco treat after all…
Yep, Leko’s got good management. In my view, however, he should not be invited anymore.
There are enough highly rated players out there who play much more excitingly: Morozevich, Radjabov, Vachier-Lagrave, Akopian, Nakamura, etc.
Invite any of those players and your draw ratio will drop significantly as opposed to having Leko around.
It’s not really a “world” record, it’s a Dortmund-only record. And I’m not sure what Guiness has to do with it (unless Kramnik drank one to celebrate his victory). But it is a record, yes, and an impressive one.
This is really suspicious and should be uninvestigated. Why does he only win in Dortmund?
Do so, and get back to us with your findings.
I hope Danialov [sic] takes the issue up,
Oh, so do I! Danailov hasn’t embarrassed himself or Topalov recently, and I wouldn’t want the world forgetting how shifty they both are. Of course, in light of the Ethics Committee’s decision against Topalov last time, another unsubstantiated accusation will probably result in a suspension for him, but it’s a small price to pay. (Heh, heh).
“Why does he only win in Dortmund?”
Wrong to start with … . Kramnik won the 2007 Tal Memorial – mostly with positional endgame squeezes, one area where som top GM’s may still be stronger than computers. He won Linares sveral times (OK, some years ago). He won his matches against Kasparov and Topalov. He finished second at the Mexico WCh.
Oh well, never let facts get in the way of a nice conspiration theory!