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World Championship 2012 / Game 6
Published May 18, 2012 | 
World Championship 2012 / Game 5
Published May 17, 2012 |
Anand playing White changed his opening move – e4. Gelfand responded with the Sicilian defense, Sveshnikov variation. The game followed a typical pattern in this line; White holding a minimal theoretical edge and Black having activity with opposite colored Bishops. The result was another draw.
World Championship 2012 / Game 4
Published May 15, 2012 |
A MAJOR SNOOZEFEST ! ! !
Game 4 – Gelfand played White.
Nothing to say – except I intend to go back and take a good look at Game 3 – arguably the ‘only’ fight in this match so far.
The match is now one-third over and tomorrow is a REST DAY! – - and no – I’m not kidding.
World Championship 2012 / Game 2
Published May 12, 2012 |
Gelfand had White. Another sleepy DRAW. I am NOT impressed by the so-called ‘commentary’ that talks about the rich theory behind the Slav defense and fighting chess that ‘could’ have happened in this game. What actually transpired was a ‘simpleton’ opening, symmetrical Pawn structure and a fast/early draw with virtually no fight. When will this match BEGIN?
I found an amusing post on the chess.com website from someone with the handle ‘acirce’.
Arguably, the most exciting thing so far in the match has been learning that Gelfand means “elephant”.
Amen
World Championship 2012 / Game 1
Published May 11, 2012 |
A draw – Typical for the first game in a World Championship match. Still – the ‘downside’ of a draw with the white pieces is hardly what Anand wants and Gelfand was in a position to fight for more if he chose. So – a draw it is. With a relatively short match, let’s hope for some fighting spirit in subsequent games.
Kramnik vs Aronian 2012 / Final
Published April 28, 2012 |
The Sixth game of the match was a draw – and the match itself was a draw.
This draw was different from the four others in that it was a ‘rough and tumble affair’.
Both sides had chances and the game could have gone either way.
Kramnik took advantage of Aronian’s Rook on ‘a4′ and its relationship to the ‘blocking’ Pawn on ‘c4′ by sacrificing the exchange.
Quickly after that Aronian selected Rg3 (Activity !) in instead of the passive Re1.
Then – no one really knew what was going on except that the match ended in a grand fight.
Congratulations to both players !
For the PGN file – See Comments
Kramnik vs Aronian 2012 / Game 5
Published April 27, 2012 |
Game Five of the match was a draw – One more game to go.
One Game apiece and three draws.
All of the wins (including the rapids game after the 4th round) have been fine examples of fighting chess.6R1/1k6/1p2p1pp/p2pNpn1/Pb1P1NP1/1P2rP1P/8/3K4 w KQkq – 0 44[Event "Zurich Chess challenge Kramnik vs Aroni"] [Site "Zurich"] [Date "2012.04.27"] [Round "5.5"] [White "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Black "Aronian, Levon"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D43"] [WhiteElo "2801"] [BlackElo "2820"] [PlyCount "86"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"]1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bxf6 Qxf6 7. e3 Nd7 8. Be2 Qd8 9. O-O Be7 10. Qc2 O-O 11. a3 b6 12. Rfd1 Bb7 13. Rac1 Qb8 14. cxd5 cxd5 15. Qa4 Nf6 16. Ba6 Bxa6 17. Qxa6 Qc8 18. Qxc8 Rfxc8 19. Ne5 Bd6 20. Nd3 Ne8 21. Kf1 Kf8 22. Ke2 Ke7 23. h3 Rc4 24. b3 Rcc8 25. a4 Ba3 26. Rc2 Rc7 27. Ra1 Bd6 28. Kd2 a5 29. Rcc1 Rac8 30. f3 f5 31. g4 g6 32. Ne2 Rxc1 33. Nexc1 Nf6 34. Ne2 Nh7 35. Ne5 Ng5 36. Nf4 Bb4+ 37. Kd1 Rc3 38. Rc1 Rxe3 39. Rc7+ Kd8 40. Rg7 Kc8 41. Rg8+ Kb7 42. Rg7+ Kc8 43. Rg8+ Kb7 1/2-1/220noc8b7
Kramnik vs Aronian 2012 / Games 3,4
Published April 24, 2012 | Updated April 25, 2012
by National Life Master Loal Davis
In Game 3, courage and daring go to Aronian, but the point goes to Kramnik.
This was a splendid fighting game that was a tribute to both players.
Game 4 (see Comments) was a draw.
The match is tied at one game apiece with two draws.
Click on the board to step through the annotated game (Game 3).
There was a Rapids game following the short draw in game 4 which does nothing for the score of the ‘real’ match. HOWEVER – It was an absolutely fearless win by Aronian with the black pieces in a Ruy Lopez (See Comments).
Kramnik vs Aronian 2012 / Games 1,2
Published April 21, 2012 | Updated April 22, 2012
The first game of the Kramnik Aronian match in Zurich was a win for Aronian who played the black pieces. Although Black was better after 18 moves, White’s 19th move was most likely a blunder which did not take into account the ‘Intermezzo’ of Rb8. When I say ‘didn’t take into account’ I don’t mean to imply that Kramnik did not see the move. These guys see ‘everything’. I suspect that the evaluation associated with the move was not correct. After that, if not before, equality for White was dubious at best and Aronian finished off the first game of the match with a very well played game.
Game 2 (Comments) was a draw.
Zurich Chess Challenge: Kramnik vs. Aronian
Published February 9, 2012 |
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Kramnik, Marie and Daria |
Levon Aronian |
The Zurich Chess Club announces a six-game chess match between Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia) from 21 to 28 April 2012. The numbers 2 and 3 of the World ranking will meet in the time-honored Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville at Paradeplatz, the venue of many a famous chess event in the past. Kramnik and Aronian are the winners of the two most prestigious tournaments of the last months. While the 36-year-old Kramnik has gained a convincing victory at the London Chess Classic in December, the 29-year-old Aronian has just won the famous tournament in Wijk aan Zee with an outstanding score. Both players belong to the hottest candidates in the World championship qualifier later this year. The Zurich Chess Challenge will be the first encounter in the history of chess between two players with a rating above the magical 2800 limit and it is the first ever friendly match at the top level. It is sponsored by Oleg Skvortsov, IGC International Gemological Laboratories and Aspeco N.V., Antwerp.
The time control of the six classical games will be 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes to finish the game, with an increment of 30 seconds from move 61. If a game lasts less than three hours, the players will play a rapid game with reversed colours (with 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment on the clock).
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