Veselin Topalov
Bulgaria, ELO 2804
Viswanathan Anand
India, ELO 2803
Peter Svidler
Russia, ELO 2743
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ukraine, ELO 2738
Etienne Bacrot
France, ELO 2708
Gata Kamsky
USA, ELO 2671
Double round-robin (all play all with White and Black alternatively)
Time control – 2 hours for 40 moves + 1 hour for the 20 moves + 0.5 hour to the end of the game.
The players should not talk during the games; additionally they should not offer draws directly to their opponents. Draw-offers will be allowed only through the Chief-Arbiter in three cases: a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check and in theoretically drawn positions.
The Chief-Arbiter is the only authority who can acknowledge the final result of the game in these cases. He will be advised in his decisions throughout the tournament by GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Vice-President.
TOURNAMENT RULES
The final standing of the players will be determined according to points. In case of sharing of places – the following criteria will be decisive for the tie-break:
* A greater number of wins
* The result of the direct mini-matches between contenders
* Berger
* A greater numbers of moves played.
* A tie-break match will be played in case of a tie for the first place in the tournament between the first two players in the final standing (according to points, or the additional criteria). The match will consist of two games with a time-control of 15 minutes per player + 3 seconds added for every move played. In case of a tie, another match of two blitz-games will be played with a time-control of 5 minutes per player + 3 seconds for every move played. In case of another tied result – there will be played a last “sudden-death” decisive game with a time-control 6 minutes for the whole game for the White-player and 4 minutes for the whole game for Black-player. The White-player will only need a victory in this game to win the tournament, whole the Black-player will win the tournament by just not losing that final decisive game.
In case the first place might be shared by more than two players – the final standing will be determined according to the criteria that have been mentioned above.
This was last year’s results:
1. Topalov Veselin BUL 6½
2. Anand Viswanathan IND 5½
3-4 Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 5
3-4 Polgar Judit HUN 5
5-6 Adams Michael ENG 4
5-6 Kramnik Vladimir RUS 4
Who will win it this year? Will it be Topalov again? Will it be Anand? How will Kamsky do?
Anand Anand Anand!!!
Topalov! Topalov! Topalov!
Marsha Marsha Marsha!!!
Kamsky looks to be in a difficult position. it will be expected from the elo rating that he be in last place. but that is not good for him. this looks to me like a mistake for him to be playing here.
the only other thing is that if he does super well then his star will shine. but so far he has not really played at the level to do real well here.
the other players have ratings well above Kamsky.
I will be cheering for Kamsky. but I dont have a lot of confidence he will win.
I prefer to see Anand win over Topalov.
I think Anand will win, but I hope Kamsky gets his old form back. He did beat Anand, so he is capable of beating anyone. I wonder if he studied the openings since this is what he himself said in an interview he needed to catch up to modern 2700+ players.
Hi Susan, and all,
My gut feeling is that Anand and Topalov will tie. I am also quite interested as to what openings Topalov will play in this tournament, given that he is playing Kramnik in September, and so probably wont want to reveal any preparation. Very interesting to see what his tactic with this will be indeed.
I agree, on paper it appears that Kamsky will get creamed. At Corus, he got beaten out of the opening in several games, and he got into severe time control in several others.
On the other hand, he did show that, when he gets into a playable middlegame with sufficient time on his clock, he can still be lethal against top-flight opposition. The question is what he has taken away from that experience.
Both John and Marc made good points. It is a tough situation for Topalov. Obviously he cannot use all his secret weapons.
Kamsky is good enough to beat anyone with proper training. The problem is he is still far from his old form.
It would be interesting to see how they do.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
http://www.SusanPolgar.com
Topalov has said that the match with Kramnik is too far away for him to worry about and that he is going to concentrate on winning Mtel.
That is great news for chess. Rather than Topalov-Kramnik … I would love to see a Topalov-Anand duel … we havent seen a 1 vs. 2 match since Kasparov-Karpov.
Since politics seem to be against such a duel, I guess we will have to be satisfied with the two game mini-match between these two titans.
If people want to test Topalov’s preparation against kramnik, I guess they will try playing the Berlin & Sveshnikov with white and black. Berlin has already become a staple of Topalov’s repertoire.
By the way, these are the openings that have given Anand the most fits the past few years. People seem to equalize very easily against him playing the Berlin or the Sveshnikov. Of course, I am a patzer and if someone with superior chess knowledge (like Susan) has a different opinion, we should go with that opinion 🙂
I’m cheering for Kamsky. GO USA!
In this months chess life it describes Nakamura as the biggest threat to the world championship since Bobby Fischer. Why doesn’t anyone say things like this about Kamsky’s performance before he retired?
Is Judit playing this year?
No, Judit is about to give birth in 7-8 weeks.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
No, Judit is about to give birth in 7-8 weeks.
That’s a good news!!!
Congratulations to Judit and her family!
Topalov will win with a 1,5 point advantage. Kamsky will finish last, all the others around 50%, with Anand having the best tiebreaks.