Standing after round 10 (of 11)

1: 7.0 Sergei Rublevsky

2: 6.0 Dmitry Jakovenko

3- 6: 5.5 Evgeny Bareev, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, Vadim Zvjaginsev

7- 8: 5.0 Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Motylev

9-10: 4.0 Alexey Dreev, Alexander Khalifman

11-12: 3.5 Evgeny Tomashevsky, Sergey Volkov

After 10 rounds, Rublevsky has clinched at least a tie for first. Jakovenko is in clear second. In the mean time, Kramnik who set out to prove to the world that he is still a legitimate World Champion is in a tie for 7-8 with a 50% score. This is a total embarrassment for Kramnik in a number of ways:

1. He shows that he is no longer the same Kramnik in 2000.
2. Not only that he is not strong enough to win the Russian Championship with no Kasparov, he even lost his fighting spirit by taking a number of short draws without a fight.

So what is next for Kramnik? It is hard to say. I certainly hope that he does not continue to self-proclaim that he is still a legitimate World Champion.

In my opinion, Kramnik’s last chance will be Corus 2006. If he does not win Corus in a convincing fashion, he can kiss good bye to any claim, however small it is already. Posted by Picasa

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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