The main event of the last two days in Elista is the resumption of the match for the title of absolute world chess champion. True, some changes have already been made to the game schedule. The third of October was declared a day of rest, as a result the time of the parties moved by one day, and this very seriously affected the schedule of direct television broadcasts.
As for the match as such, Vladimir Kramnik, despite the fact that he was credited with a technical defeat, agreed to continue the game. After this, the sympathies of all chess, and not only chess mankind, were completely on his side. Many observers far from chess even built a concept according to which both Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian delegation, the self-dissolving appeal committee, and the FIDE leadership act at the same time, since they urgently need Veselin Topalov as the only world champion.
At first glance, such constructions look quite logical, but it should be noted that from a legal point of view, the events that occurred after the first appeal of Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov appeared to be quite clean. Although from a moral point of view they can not be regarded otherwise than as a dirty run, designed to bring Vladimir Kramnik, who was the leader in the score, out of a state of mental equilibrium. And in this regard, we can only regret that there was no one in the team of the classic world champion who could oppose equally skillful legal attacks with equally skillful retaliatory actions.
It was enough to do quite a bit - for example, to challenge Silvio Danailov’s appeal on one basis or another and state that before the final decision Vladimir Kramnik would not sit at the board. Instead, an open letter was written and published to the world chess community, and Kramnik himself spoke at the press conference of the Chairman of the Appeal Jury Georgius Makropoulos with angry denunciations. Alas, such actions had no legal force.
Yesterday, October 3, the new jury of appeal examined Vladimir Kramnik’s complaint against all previous decisions and rejected it for purely procedural reasons. Moreover, the collateral of 5 thousand dollars was returned by the applicant. I would very much like that, despite such an unfavorable development of the “toilet war”, Vladimir Kramnik would find the courage to sit down at the chessboard again and bring the match to a well-deserved victory. In this case, the crown of the absolute chess champion won by him would be truly absolute.
On the eve of the grandmasters again started to play with a score of 3.5 to 2.5 in favor of Vladimir Kramnik. White in the seventh game belonged to Veselin Topalov, and the Bulgarian chess player had to play to win. Everyone knows how masterly his opponent is able to defend himself, which means that there are unlikely to be too many chances to equalize. Every white draw is a missed opportunity.
As a debut, the grandmasters played a well-known version, which was repeatedly met in the practice of Kramnik, however, he has implemented it until now exclusively in white. Topalov played very fast, by the 18th move his handicap was already 40 minutes, but the Bulgarian could not achieve a significant advantage. Meanwhile, the odious manager of Topalov Silvio Danailov continued his attacks on Kramnik and his team. Already in the course of the game, he distributed a press release in which he analyzes the numerous coincidences of Kramnik’s moves with the Fritz-9 computer line. Obviously, Elista’s peace and tranquility are just dreaming, and at any moment a new conflict can happen.
In this game, Topalov was unable to get Kramnik out of himself. In the endgame, the Bulgarian lost one pawn to the opponent, however, to realize the advantage was almost impossible. On move 60, the judge recorded a draw after repeating the moves three times. The total score is 4: 3 in favor of the Russian grandmaster. The next game of the match will take place today.
World Championship Match Calendar
October 5 - 8th round
October 6 is a day off
October 7 - 9th round
October 8 - 10th round
October 9 is a day off
October 10 - 11th round
October 11 is a day off
October 12 - Round 12
October 13 - tiebreaks, closing ceremony
SERGEY MAKARYCHEV, international grandmaster, chess observer NTV-Plus