Kramnik - Leko  Championship Match
September 25th--October 18th
Brissago, Switzerland
GM Peter Leko and GM Vladimir Kramnik prepare to face off before the 1st game of their World Championship Match.

The Kramnik-Leko match take place in Brissago, Switzerland and consists of 14 games (with draws counting).  In an interesting contest which moved the chess world moved closer to unification,  Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (seated right) scored a come-from-behind victory over Peter Leko of Hungary. The score ended 7-7, but Kramnik maintains his title in the event of a tie. Leko held the lead after winning the 8th game convincingly and fended off last-minute attempts by Kramnik to wrestle the lead away.

After a spate of draws, games 12 and 13 saw Kramnik press forward only to be rebuked. In the last game, Leko decided to allow a sharp line in the Caro-Kann and was duly crushed and with the loss would end his dreams of playing for the unified World Championship Kramnik will face the winner of
Garry-Kasparov--Rustam Kasindzhanov match which will take place January 2005. Details are forthcoming. If Kasparov wins the match, it will serve as a sort of defacto "rematch" against Kramnik who won the world title in 2000.

All Games (PGN format, Java)

Did Peter Leko get bad advice?