Since writing my January
piece (Credibility
and the World Title) little has changed. Kasparov’s stunning successes
in Holland and Spain were most impressive, but the world title is still in a
mess with nothing materialising as of yet from Braingames. Their website is
static and if they are still going to be a player in world chess they will
have to act fast. Is there any gas in the tank?
Evgeny Bareev: Subtle sense of irony
One of the wittiest of
leading Grandmasters, Evgeny Bareev, wrote in New in Chess magazine
that it was easier for Anand to win the FIDE knock-out than it would be for
him to beat either Kasparov or Kramnik in a match while it would be easier for
either of the participants of the London match to beat Anand in a match than
to win such a knock-out. It sounds like an insult to Anand, but it isn’t
necessarily…maybe Bareev thinks the probability of Anand winning the
knock-out was .9 while the probability of him beating either K is only .8 and
that either K would have only a .1 chance of winning the knock-out! I suspect
he thinks no such thing, but it is a model consistent with his statement. It
just shows that it is always difficult to know what Bareev really thinks!
Wijk did little to change my
view that a match between Kramnik and Anand will not be enough to resolve the
problem of creating an undisputed World Champion. I repeat that for
credibility, Kasparov needs to be involved too. Kasparov battled it out in
Linares while Kramnik and Anand took a well-deserved rest. They were probably
hoping that Gazza would fail in Spain but instead he triumphed magnificently
yet again. The greatest tournament player of all time is still on a winning
roll, as if the match against Kramnik never happened. His energy and dynamism
were still very apparent – just ask Anatoly Karpov who lost a most
impressive game as black in a Caro-Kann to his old foe.
In London we saw that the new
world champion prevented the last one from playing his natural game. To be
more accurate, Kramnik made Kasparov feel too inhibited to play his normal,
fearless game. Kasparov, for once, was weak psychologically when confronted by
a resolute opponent who gave him absolutely no fear to feed off. Although the
London match was disappointing in most ways, the rematch (if and when it
happens) should be fascinating…
Check out the photos section of this website (Me and My Mates: Chess Players Revealed) for some recent additions – it’s the usual mix of top players (both guys and girls) and others from the chess scene.