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| The World Chess Championship match between Vladimir
Kramnik and Veselin Topalov takes place in Elista 23rd September - 10th October
2006. The winner of the match will be the undisputed world chess champion. It
will bring to end the schism in chess which started with the break away of
Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short to play their title match in 1993. The players  Vladimir Kramnik at Wijk aan Zee 2005 Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Kramnik was born in Tuapse, Russia 25th June 1975 making him 31 years old. According to his personal website (http://www.kramnik.com) "His father Boris is a well-known sculptor; his mother Irina a music teacher." and it also says "Kramnik started to play chess at the age of five. At 12, his enormous talent was recognized in Moscow and encouraged. As a teenager, Kramnik got better and better – at only 16, he won the U18 world championship." He was one of the final students of the Botvinnik school of chess in the Soviet Union which contributed to his fine grounding in all aspects of the game. Kramnik's breakthrough came when he was in the Manila Olympiad of 1992 at the age of 16 and when he was only an FM. He scored 8.5/9 for a performance of 2958. This result got him noticed and also invitations to many of the most important events. By 1995 he was in the top three players in the world a spot he was not to lose until 2004. Vladimir Kramnik won many of the world's strongest events taking first place in Dortmund in 1995, 1996 (shared), 1997, 1998 (shared), 2000, 2001 (shared) and 2006. Linares 2000, 2003 (shared) and 2004. At Wijk aan Zee he has only finished first equal once, in 1998. A thrilling player when he first emerged the main criticism of his game is that he gradually became too cautious and technical, it was this route he took in defeating Kasparov to take his title. Braingames WCC London 2000
123456789012345
1 Kramnik,V 2770 ½1½½½½½½½1½½½½½ 8.5/15
2 Kasparov,G 2849 ½0½½½½½½½0½½½½½ 6.5/15
Its hard to know how much this reputation is due to his character and how much to his increasing ill-health due to rheumatoid arthritis which caused his results to take a dramatic dip following his match with Leko in 2004. WCh Brissago SUI 2004
12345678901234
1 Kramnik,V 2770 1½½½0½½0½½½½½1 7.0/14 49.00
2 Leko,P 2741 0½½½1½½1½½½½½0 7.0/14 49.00
In that match he needed to win a game to draw the match and he showed in the final game he could still play risky and aggressive chess with great skill. However after a long break for his treatment his appearances at the Olympiad (6.5/9 top rated performance) and Dortmund 4.5/7 1st on tie-break suggest he is much better and in good form going into the match. Veselin Topalov  Veselin Topalov at Wijk aan Zee 2005. Photo © Michiel Abeln Veselin Topalov was born in Rousse (Ruse), Bulgaria on 15th March 1975 making him 31 years old. He learned chess at the age of 8, won the under 14 World Championship in Puerto Rico in 1989. The following year he got the silver at the Under 16 World Championship in Singapore. In 1992 like Kramnik he became a Grandmaster. Topalov's breakthrough also came at an Olympiad, again his first, this time in Moscow 1994 two years later than Kramnik. Topalov too started to get a tremendous results shortly afterward including 1996 where he won events in Madrid, Dos Hermanas, Amsterdam, Vienna and Novgorod positioning him as a potential challenger to Garry Kasparov. His form however became variable afterwards and he seemed destined to not quite live up to his initial promise even though he was obviously one of the strongest players in the world. However this changed in 2005. He caught Garry Kasparov at the Linares 2005 tournament by beating him in his final game before his retirement and only losing out on first place on tie-break, then winning his home tournament the MTel Masters in Sofia. Then in the FIDE World Championship tournament in San Luis came the victory that made him FIDE World Champion. He started with an amazing 6.5/7 and then saw the tournament home in the second half with draws. WCh-FIDE San Luis ARG 2005
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 Topalov,V 2788 +102 ** 1½ ½½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 10.0/14
2 Svidler,P 2738 +76 0½ ** ½½ 11 1½ ½½ ½½ 1½ 8.5/14 55.00
3 Anand,V 2788 +19 ½½ ½½ ** 0½ ½1 01 1½ 11 8.5/14 54.50
4 Morozevich,A 2707 +36 0½ 00 1½ ** ½1 ½1 ½½ ½½ 7.0/14
5 Leko,P 2763 -52 0½ 0½ ½0 ½0 ** ½1 1½ 1½ 6.5/14
6 Kasimdzhanov,R 2670 +2 0½ ½½ 10 ½0 ½0 ** ½½ 01 5.5/14 38.75
7 Adams,Mi 2719 -53 0½ ½½ 0½ ½½ 0½ ½½ ** ½½ 5.5/14 38.00
8 Polgar,Ju 2735 -125 0½ 0½ 00 ½½ 0½ 10 ½½ ** 4.5/14
Average elo: 2738 <=> Category: 20
gm = 4.62 m = 1.82
Topalov then went to the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, January 2006 where he shared first place with Viswanathan Anand, he took 3rd in the Morelia /Linares tournament where he started with 2.5/7 but finished with 5.5/7. This took him to clear number one in the international rating list for the first time after the retirement of Garry Kasparov. He took first place again on the MTel Master 2006 tournament. Topalov was the clear world number one in the July rating list (the October rating list is unlikely to see changes at the top) with a rating of 2813 with a gain of 9 rating point, ahead of Viswanathan Anand 2779 (lost 24), Levon Aronian 2761 (up 5) and Vladimir Kramnik 2761 (up 14 points). He seems to have found a way to harness his great talent with sharp and dynamic opening choices which play into his strengths of calculation and fitness. Clearly an important part of his opening team is the young and talented Ivan Cheparinov who has been responsible for a number of his most important novelties and opening ideas. Topalov is far more prepared to take risks than Kramnik but this may not be an advantage in the match. Topalov's career has been largely free of controversy but his victories in San Luis and some of his performances in 2006 have been the subject of what I can only call scandalous professional jealousy. Some of his rivals have initiated a vicious, anonymous and untrue whispering campaign against him since he became champion that he has been using computer assistance during his games. The "proof" goes along the lines of "I looked at his games in Fritz and he played many of the same moves" but it reminds me most of all of the Fischer attacks on modern chess where apparently he believes all the top games have been fixed in advance for years. The impact on the match will be that there will be a lot of anti-computer security which should favour Topalov as it should silence these critics. Match and World Championship Experience Vladimir Kramnik beat Garry Kasparov in October/ November 2000 in the Braingames World Championship match in London and retained his version of the title in September/ October 2004 in Brissago, Switzerland with a last gap final game victory over Peter Leko to draw the match. Kramnik's experience of matches should prove an advantage but he has also lost his fair share losing to 4.5-1.5 to Gata Kamsky (PCA) and 4.5-3.5 to Gelfand (FIDE) in 1994 and most notoriously 5.5-3.5 against Alexei Shirov in Cazorla in 1998. The latter match should have qualified Shirov to play Kasparov for his world title, that match never happened and somehow Kramnik ended up playing Kasparov in 2000 in spite of the loss. Kramnik also lost in 1999 to Adams in a quarter final FIDE KO match in Las Vegas but perhaps importantly did beat Topalov 2-0 in a rapid playoff in the fourth round after their two normal time rate games were drawn. Kramnik gained vital experience from the master when he acted as a second to Garry Kasparov for his world title match against Viswanathan Anand in New York 1996. Veselin Topalov won the FIDE World Championship title in a double round robin title event in San Luis Argentina in 2005. His match world championship match experience is limited to the FIDE knockout format. He lost his first round match to Jeroen Piket 1.5-05 in Groningen, 1997, beat Ruslan Ponomariov and Lev Psakhis before losing to Kramnik in Las Vegas 1999, in New Delhi 2000 he seemed in tremendous form beating Andrei Kharlov, Kiril Georgiev and Alexey Dreev before being defeated by Michael Adams 1.5-0.5. In the 2001 FIDE event in Moscow he defeated Pierrot, Vescovi and Zhang Zhong before losing to Alexei Shirov in the fourth round. He was strong favourite in Tripoli, 2004 to take the FIDE title winning his first five matches in only 2 games against Abulhul, Delchev, Movsesian, Kozul and Kharlov. He lost the semi-final against Rustam Kasimdzhanov 2-0 in a rapid playoff after they drew their four normal time rate games. Head to head Previous games between the players in PGN Checking through my databases I believe they've played 37 standard time rate games of which Kramnik has won 10 Topalov 4 with 22 drawn (21.5-15.5 to Kramnik). But in 2005 (Topalov's good year and Kramnik's bad) the score stands at 2-1 with 2 draws to Topalov but Kramnik did win their last games together at Dortmund. If the match comes down to a rapid or blitz playoff then they've played 23 games with Kramnik winning 9 Topalov winning only 4 and 10 draws (14-9 to Kramnik). In addition Kramnik won their mini-match playoff in the FIDE World Championships of 1999 on a rapid tie-break. This is one of the hardest matches to predict in many years of matches and could turn out to be a very tense classic. In Kramnik's favour is his greater experience at world title matches, his plus scores against Topalov in all forms of chess and perhaps a style more suited to match play. In Topalov's favour is his number one status as reflected by his very strong play over the last 18 months and his far superior fitness. Kramnik's form and fitness going into the match are real open questions that can only be answered when we see the match. Support Teams Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria 1. Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria, participant 2. Danailov Silvio, Bulgaria, manager 3. Cheparinov Ivan, Bulgaria, coach 4. Oleksandr Onishchuk, the USA, coach 5. Francisco Vallejo Pons, Spain, coach 6. Vladimir Haralampiev Rapondzhiev, Bulgaria, team member 7. Raicho Ivanov Gospodinov, Bulgaria, team member 8. Georgiev Dragomir, Bulgaria, team member 9. Ginchev Zhivko, Bulgaria, team member 10. Dancho Djongov, Bulgaria, team member Vladimir Kramnik, Russia 1. Vladimir Kramnik, Russia, participant 2. Carsten Hensel, Germany, manager 3. Miguel Illescas, Spain, coach 4. Alexander Motylev, Russia, coach 5. Sergei Rublevsky, Russia, coach 6. Valeri Krylov, Russia, physiotherapist 7. Victor Bobylev, Russia, cook Links and Sources FIDE: http://www.fide.com Match site: http://www.worldchess2006.com A Veselin Topalov site: http://www.veselintopalov.net Wiki on Topalov: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veselin_Topalov Kramnik's Official site: http://www.kramnik.com Wiki on Kramnik: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kramnik Olimpbase: http://www.olimpbase.org |
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 Kasparov Books |
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 Giant Chess Sets |
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 Chess Computers |
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 Chess Assistant |
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 Books 2000/1/2/3 |
