The World Chess Championship 2006: Kramnik v Topalov

[Donna Ferentes]

Bollocks. How do I sort that out with no technical knowledge in the next twenty-five minutes?

 

[lighterthief]

If that link runs into trouble or crashes, the moves will also be relayed via the playchess server. It's free to register for 30 days, however you will need to download a fairly chunky piece of software.

Donna: go to Java website and just download it?

 

[lighterthief]

http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

?

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Note my use of the term "no technical knowledge". The phrase "just download it" doesn't really apply.

 

[iROBOT]

just down loaded java on my Mac...all good...

 

[Loki]

Java site: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

 

[iROBOT]

Very good

_____________________


Bump!!!

Game 1 in just under 1 hour, noon UK time. The chess board is here

http://www.worldchess2006.com/main.asp?id=926

Double Bump

(for the lazy)

 

[lighterthief]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/java/

for Macs

 

[lighterthief]

I predict plenty of draws. Donna's right - 12 games is too short for a World Championship match. I'm sure the Karpov-Kasparov match in 1984 stretched to 48 games, although only 8 of the games were decisive.

 

[Loki]

I predict plenty of draws. Donna's right - 12 games is too short for a World Championship match. I'm sure the Karpov-Kasparov match in 1984 stretched to 48 games, although only 8 of the games were decisive.

Spot the party pooper But you're right sadly and god draws are a disappointment. Let's just keep everything crossed

 

[nonamenopackdrill]

god draws are a disappointment.

I don't agree with this at all.

 

[Loki]

Well we'll differ on that then. I much prefer a game to victory.

Anyway... I'm not seeing any moves and it should have started 5 min ago right?

Fuck it, I've installed that playchess thingy, need a reboot...

 

[Supine]

they're still thinking

 

[lighterthief]

1. d4, Nf6

 

[Loki]

^ How do you know that?

 

[lighterthief]

The game has started.

[Event "World Championship Match"]
[Site "Elista"]
[Date "2006.09.23"]
[Round "1"]
[White "GM Kramnik, Vladimir(RUS)"]
[Black "GM Topalov, Veselin(BUL)"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2743"]
[BlackElo "2813"]
[Annotator "Holger_Lieske"]
[PlyCount "15"]
[EventDate "2006.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 a5 7. Qc2 Bxd2+ 8.
Qxd2 *

 

[lighterthief]

Surprise surprise, the official site has stalled apparently.

 

[Loki]

WHERE are you getting that from? (and how do I get it!!) ^

 

[lighterthief]

If you've got playchess installed, go to the room 'Broadcasts' (bottom right) then click 'games' tab (top left) then doubleclick either of the players names.

 

[Loki]

Aha! Thanks v. muchly, yes I installed it which is why I had to reboot earlier. I got in as Guest btw.

Seeing the game now, phew....

 

[lighterthief]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 a5 7.Qc2 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 c6 9.a4 b5 10.axb5 cxb5 11.Qg5 0-0 12.Qxb5 Ba6

 

[Loki]

Taking his time on that one...my recommendation here is move the queen Qa4 is prolly best

 

[Loki]

13. Qa4 Qb6 14. O-O, still no surprises. I'm in good company on PlayChess, 3 GMs watching it too

eta Deep Fritz 8 is predicting ...Qxb2, well it would...

 

[Donna Ferentes]

At exactly one o'clock rain started coming through the ceiling and the electricity went off - one reason why my commentary is likely to be intermittent.

The Catalan (4.g3) is a very difficult opening in which White tries to establish a very small but safe advantage if Black plays safe with 4...Be7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O dxc4 7.Qc2. This would be more to Kramnik's taste than Topalov's. So the Bulgarian takes the pawn earlier, which means that White has to work to get the pawn back - Black then has the choice of trying to hold onto it (with moves like ...c6 and ...b5) or by using the time that White spends in trying to develop, gain space on the queenside etc. White usually has to recapture the pawn with his queen and this often means that the queen gets chased around the board a bit, as in this game. However, in chasing the queen Black can create weaknesses in his own position, and then the bishop on g2 can become very powerful.

 

[Loki]

Well that's a bugger about the rain

14 ... Qxb2 15 Nbd2 Bb5 16. Nxc4 Bxa4 17 Nxb2 Bb5 18 Ne5

And as you say, the Bishop g2 now coming into its element... Deep Fritz giving white the advantage at 0.48

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I wouldn't take Deep Fritz 100% seriously, not at least until you can ask the question "why is White better here?" and get an answer expressed in words.

The main function of the computer, even now, is to show you tactics that you might otherwise miss.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

One problem for White - who is very likely better - is that even if he gangs up on the a-pawn and wins it, it would be very hard to win the resulting endgame with all the pawns on the same side. That's the problem with playing for small advantages!

Black's bishop is very awkward now - loose with nowhere to go. Compare white's tremendous piece.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Incidentally a photo of yours truly looking hungover (which is odd, because I wasn't) at the Isle of Man tournament* is now available on the "ugly mugs" thread.

[* = either 2003 or 2004, not sure which]

 

[Loki]

Either that or a sub-lethal quantity of valium I have the same issue with photo posing, whatever the opposite of photogenic is, I'm that!

18 ... Ra7, I thought Ne5 there. But anyway the ganging up commences...

(eta: "official" website board is still at the starting position )

 

[lighterthief]

(eta: "official" website board is still at the starting position )

Yep. A sad state of affairs when the organisers can't even transmit the game live. Perhaps they expended the budget on dreaming up the mascot for the match: