World Championships
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2009 World Cup: Round #3
Photo by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE. Gallery link, ugra-chess.ru. Pivotal Round today in Siberia. Boris Gelfand will try to hold onto the board #1 position against Judit Polgar in what may be the marquee matchup of round #3. A deep field means that Polgar is the #32 ranked player…
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2009 World Cup: Round #2
Key matchups are on tap for the FIDE World Cup. While most of the top seeds moved on, they will face stiffer tests in round two. Judit Polgar will start her first match today against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania. This tournament may see the rise by a number of young…
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2009 World Cup: Round #1
Eshan Ghaem Maghami (Iran) chats with fellow-GM Darwin Laylo (Philippines) before action starts. Photo by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE. Gallery link, ugra-chess.ru. The opening round of the 2009 World Cup had few surprises, but it is clear that the balance of power is shifting. Certainly the Russians still have…
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Kamsky vs. Topalov (Sofia, Bulgaria)
Gata Kamsky will take on the world’s highest-rated player in Veselin Topalov is an eight-game match to determine who will challenge Viswanathan Anand in the World Championship match. After a long tortuous battle of negotiations, the venue will be Sofia, Bulgaria and will begin play on February 18th and end…
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WCC 2008: Anand retains title!!
Viswanathan Anand of India has retained his world championship title by accepting a draw from Vladimir Kramnik.This World Chess Championship further unifies the championship cycle using the match system The game was surprising in that all the games had begun with 1.d4, but Anand trotted out his traditional 1.e4. There…
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WCC 2008: Kramnik crushes Anand, closes gap
Vladimir Kramnik came roaring back with a convincing victory over Viswanathan Anand in an interesting Nimzo-Indian. All pundits were speculating that Anand could close the deal with a draw, but the game entered a sharp middlegame where Anand went astray and his position collapsed in only a few moves. It…
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WCC 2008: Anand escapes, holds +3
Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik pawn off. Photo by Frederic Friedel (ChessBase). “I thought I was lost,” stated Viswanathan Anand during the press conference of the World Chess Championship in Bonn, Germany. Indeed. Fans near and far thought this was Vladimir Kramnik’s chance to close the gap. There are a…
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WCC 2008: Kramnik has failed to break through
Vladimir Kramnik went into this highly-anticipated match with a reputation as a superb match player. While his reputation is more legend than fact (having lost several matches), he is the only player to have beaten Garry Kasparov in a match. Kramnik was actually a slight favorite in this match, but…
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WCC 2008: Anand powers ahead of Kramnik!
Viswanathan Anand is known as the ‘Tiger from Chennai’. On Friday he showed his strength after he took the lead in a highly anticipated match with former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. Game three featured a complicated Meran variation in which Anand unfurled a novelty in 14…Bb7! This pawn sacrifice helped…
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2008 World Championship (Anand vs. Kramnik)
The big downdown will commence in Bonn, Germany in a few days. World Champion Viswanathan Anand will play in perhaps the biggest match of his life and a chance to cement his legacy among the world’s greatest players in chess history. His opponent… Vladimir Kramnik, who defeated Garry Kasparov in…
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