Last game in Bonn

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  • Last game in Bonn

    I was sure I had posted this yesterday after the game but here we go again:

    Game 11 in Bonn:
    You can imagine that the speculation was rampant this morning at breakfast. "Did you see Anand? He doesn't look very well" "If Kramnik wins today we are headed for tie breaks for sure" "Kramnik has some chances to win today - at least 25%" And on it went.

    For the first time in the match we saw 1. e4. I was looking after Kramnik today and he arrived about 1 minute before game time - he hates being there too early. He was arriving at the board as the clock was started and e4 was played before Vladimir had sat down. He composed himself for a moment and replied with a Sicilian. He was happy to get a Najdorf, not due to his preparation but because it's a fighting position which was what he needed. He found Qc5 over the board. 12... ef5 ws the first critical position in the game and he thought Vishy found the best move in 13 Qe3. I made a note in my book that Vishy looked satisfied after this move. As it turns out he was. Vishy later commented that the game got very tricky quite early with Qc5 and ef5. But he felt quite safe after trading his N for the B on c8 followed by Kb1.

    An awards ceremony came soon after the game, followed by their post game press conference. Both players were quite complimentary of one another. Kramnik noted Vishy's excellent preparation and likewise Anand was more relieved than happy to be finished against such a "lethal match player" as Kramnik. Vishy's immediate plans are to get together with his team tonite, "Put on some Cold Play and just space out". Kramnik looks forward to some rest but vows he will be back. "Actually I am enjoying chess at the moment... It was great to play with Vishy... to exchange ideas at such a high level was a very interesting chess experience."

    The organizers were grateful to the Arbiters for "being invisible". We all took this as a compliment.

  • #2
    Re: Last game in Bonn

    Hi Hal,

    Jonathan Berry paid me a similar comment (I believe he put it in the CFC mag at the time) after I directed the 1978 Canadian Open...I also took it as a compliment :).

    Today Andrew McMillan (our awesome CMA sales rep in Toronto) left for Germany...when he reserved his ticket, he was hoping to attend the last games of the match...ohhh well...I guess he will have to spend the next 10 days visiting Germany instead :)

    Thanks for your reports!

    When will you be back in the real world? :). I am spending the next 10 days in the center of the universe...maybe we can get together...I would love to here the stories :)

    Larry

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