Chess Championship

[Clarkmeister]

Any of you chess guys have an opinion on this line?

101 Victor Kramnik -0.5 Game -108
102 Peter Leko +0.5 Game -102

[Dynasty]

I hadn't heard of Kramnik defending his title but here's some quick information to get things started.

Kramnik is the player who defeated Gary Kasparov in 2000 to end Kasparov's decade-and-a-half domination of the chess world.

Acording to the official FIDE ratings, Kramnik is ranked #3 in the world. He's a decent amount behind Kasparov who many think is still the best player despite losing the World Championship. He's also a bit behind V. Anand who is widely regarded as being in the same league as both Kasparov and Kramnik (but certainly a bit behind Kasparov until he proves otherwise).

I don't know much about Leko other than that he's currently ranked fourth by FIDE and he's a rather young 24. He's never competed for the World Championship before.

You could try posing the question in the Fide Forums.

[Dynasty]

Miscellaneoous: He's a link to a story by Bob Ciaffone about Kramnik beating Kasparov in 2000.

http://www.michess.org/webzine_20010...pionship.shtml

[Dynasty]

I couldn't find a good site which is covering the match. This is the best I found.

http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/a3a4dnix.htm

A total of 14 games is to be played under classical time controls. Vladimir Kramnik is defending the title he won from Garry Kasparov in 2000 against Hungarian GM Peter Leko, who qualified at the Dortmund Candidates in 2002.

14 games is very short for a World Championship match. Because the match is so short, I think Kramnik will play defensively. He'll play not to lose, especially with the black pieces. As a result, it's very unlikely Leko will win the match. He may not even win a single game. I'd say Leko has at best a 20% chance of winning the match.

[David Steele]

Here is a good place for regular chess news.
The Week in Chess

The story looks about the same as the one you posted.

I like Kramnik at that line, can't figure what they are thinking.

D.

[MMMMMM]

"14 games is very short for a World Championship match. Because the match is so short, I think Kramnik will play defensively. He'll play not to lose, especially with the black pieces. As a result, it's very unlikely Leko will win the match. He may not even win a single game. I'd say Leko has at best a 20% chance of winning the match."

Kramnik did a helluva job playing defensively against Kasparov; hard to imagine he'll have even that much trouble playing defensively against Leko. But hey, what do I know about Leko.

[Non_Comformist]

How do "professional" chess players make money?

Are there prizes for these things, sponsors?

[Dynasty]

Matches and tournaments at the highest level have sponsors. In many situations, the sponsors provide the funds with no expectations of making their money back.

[Gamblor]

Same way professional golfers make their money.

Someone throws a tournament, gets a sponsor, sponsor gets ad-time, top players get cuts of sponsor's money.

[TimM]

What's the line on this match being really boring?

Kasparov needs to get his act together again...