Ivanchuk has not won a single game in this tournament. Kramnik has not lost a single game. Can the big upset happen? Many people expected Carlsen to do poorly. He proved convincingly that he belongs. He has White against Kamsky in the final round. Will youth or experience prevail?
Final round matchups:
Ivanchuk – Kramnik
Carlsen – Kamsky
Jakovenko – Shirov
Mamedyarov – Alekseev
Gelfand – Leko
Standings heading to the final round:
1. Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2785 6
2. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2739 4½
3. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2714 4
4. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2736 4
5. Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2710 4
6. Lékó, Peter g HUN 2755 4
7. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2752 3½
8. Kamsky, Gata g USA 2714 3½
9. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2787 3½
10. Alekseev, Evgeny g RUS 2716 3
Official website: http://russiachess.org/eng/
Ivanchuk and Kamsky will prevail. Go Gata!
“Many people expected Carlsen to do poorly.”
You may be interested in the following poll result from the Russian Chess website for this question “Who would you like to see as the winner of the Tal Memorial?”
Magnus Carlsen 1124
Vladimir Kramnik 468
Vasily Ivanchuk 267
Alexei Shirov 201
Shakhriar Mamedyarov 144
Gata Kamsky 124
Peter Leko 99
Boris Gelfand 55
Evgeny Alekseev 27
Dmitry Jakovenko 21
The other poll asks “Who will win the Tal Memorial?”. And the result is
Vladimir Kramnik 1818
Magnus Carlsen 810
Shakhriar Mamedyarov 280
Vasily Ivanchuk 263
Peter Leko 141
Alexei Shirov 71
Boris Gelfand 54
Gata Kamsky 45
Evgeny Alekseev 20
Dmitry Jakovenko 14
The funny thing is: the russian (http://russiachess.org/component/option,com_exitpoll/task,results/id,21/) and the english (http://www.russiachess.org/eng/component/option,com_poll/task,results/id,23/)p oll are kept separatly!
In the russian poll Kramnik has the highest votes also as the player most wanted to win.
/L
in chessvibes carlsen was voted third after kramnik first and ivanchuck second.
third is not so poor …
Calling it an upset if the World Number 2 should beat the World Number 3 with the white pieces is a bit of a stretch.
Some days it is just hard to please everyone. Especially chess players. They notice the most minor of details.