The Russian grandmaster took fourth place. And the victory on the FIDE 19th round of the FIDE category was shared by the Armenian Levon Aronian, the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov and the Azerbaijani Teymur Rajabov.
During the tournament, passions boiled not only on chessboards. As you know, the Bulgarian side has recently insisted on a rematch between Kramnik and Topalov. Initially, FIDE did not recognize financial guarantees of $ 2 million, doubting the bank details. However, Silvio Danailov, the coach and manager of Vesco, as Topalov is called in his homeland, found the “right” Bulbank, which he announced to the chess community on January 21.
The return move was made at the Presidential Council of the International Chess Federation, which took place on January 27-28 in Turkish Antalya. It says that, according to the approved rules, the match should end six months before the start of the next World Cup. Since it starts in Mexico on September 12 this year, the match should start no later than February 23. And FIDE does not have time to thoroughly prepare for such a prestigious event.
Danailov promised the Bulgarian press that he would react at the pace of blitz - he would appeal to the International Sports Arbitration Court in Lausanne ...
In such a situation, Kramnik had to solve his opening problems in the queen's gambit, playing black with his irreconcilable opponent in the 12th round. Hence the refusal to shake hands with the party, and the behavior under the motto: "My eyes would not see you."
Just by this time, the book of the Bulgarian journalist Zhivko Ginchek “Toilet War” was published, telling about the long-suffering match in Elista. One can only imagine what a colleague is painting there.
Fortunately, Vladimir did not hold the manuscript in his hands, and therefore calmly achieved equality by finding a tactical resource in the endgame that extinguishes all White’s initiative. Play grandmasters with a change in the color of the figures - and the Russian would have every chance to reduce the backlog.
In general, “plus three” for Kramnik, given the circumstances, is an acceptable result. He can also be satisfied with the creative results: he technically outplayed Viswanathan Anand, and at the same time won the first victory over the Indian in the “classic” from the time of Dortmund-2001, showed tactical talent, playing in the final round with the host of the competitions Luc van Veli.
“Living as a single human dormitory,” as the poet Mayakovsky wrote in his poem “To Comrade Netta, the Steamboat, and Man,” in a friendly chess family has not yet succeeded. However, let us leave aside Topalov the man, let’s say a few words about the player.
A chess player, admittedly, Veselin is strong. And he has a reliable team - what is at least homework worth in a game with Anand, after which Vichy surrendered with a full board of pieces, formally having a material advantage! To seek chances in a strategically lost position, the Indian considered below his dignity.
Surely the young Bulgarian assistant Ivan Cheparinov rubbed his hands pretty. The hardened tournament fighter won another important victory over Ruslan Ponomarev, who appeared in Wijk aan Zee as the middle peasant. But cutting down the “tail” - Luke van Veli, Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov - became a matter of honor for him.
And would Veselin be the owner of the main prize, if not for the Russian Peter Svidler, who stopped the leader in the 11th round. However, it should be noted that Topalov lost the game. For the missing pawn, he had a strong attack, but was carried away by it, having missed a defensive resource. Queens disappeared from the board, and the resulting “rook” multiple champion of Russia brought to victory with an iron hand. Probably, the Bulgarian was so upset by this defeat that in the last round he did not check the fate of the kink and signed a peace with Teymur Rajabov.
They started talking about a guy from Baku when he beat his fellow countryman Garry Kasparov at a tournament in Linares in 2003. Since then, Teymur has been a welcome guest at prestigious competitions. In Holland, Rajabov had a great start, the tournament middlegame waited for draws, and accelerated at the finish. The 19-year-old chess player suffered a single defeat from Levon Aronian. The winner of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk in the last three rounds scored 2.5 points and, having divided the first place, proved his belonging to the elite.
And who is ready to join her in the near future? Since Rajabov will no longer be considered a teenager in March (20 years already twenty), the laurels of the main prodigy will be challenged by the 17-year-old Ukrainian Karjakin and the 16-year-old Norwegian Carlsen. Wijk aan Zee partially answered the question of who has what prospects.
There are reasons why the world's best basses will be born in Russia, and tenors in Italy. And no matter how the Scandinavian miracle child was promoted, he does not have enough of the Kramatorsk school of chess passed by Karjakin. If it were not for the bloody derby of the yellow-black, ending in favor of Ruslan Ponomarev, Sergey would have achieved more than dividing the seventh-eighth positions. In what scenario would Carlsen leave the last row in the table - it remains unclear.
Alexander BLANK
Wijk aan Zee. Tournament Results
1-3. Aronian, Topalov, Rajabov - 8.5 out of 13 each. 4. Kramnik - 8. 5. Anand - 7.5. 6.Svidler - 7. 7-8. Navara, Karjakin - 6.5 each. 9.Ponomarev - 6. 10-12. Motylev, Tivyakov, van Veli - at 5. 13-14. Carlsen, Shirov - at 4.5.