I don't care what you think

Is Kramnik such a great MATCH player?

2007-01-24T23:32:00.000-03:00

There are many people with arguments that Kramnik is a great MATCH player: he doesn't excel in closed tournaments (always playing for a mere "+2") but he has great results in MATCHES (where a mere +1 is enough to win).

Let's see Kramnik's match record and decide whether he is such a virtuoso in this modality:

1993: match in Cannes vs. Lautier. Kramnik won 4.5 - 1.5
1993: match in Alcobendas vs. Illescas. Kramnik won 4.5 - 1.5
1994: FIDE Candidates in Wijk ann Zee vs. Yudasin. Kramnik won 4.5 - 1.5
1994: PCA Candidates in NYC vs. Kamsky. Kramnik lost 1.5 - 5.5
1994: FIDE Candidates in Sangui Nagar vs. Gelfand. Kramnik lost 3.5 - 4.5
1998: match vs. Shirov in Cazorla. Kramnik lost 3.5 - 5.5
1999: FIDE 1/8th match vs. Adams in Las Vegas. Kramnik lost 2 - 4
2000: Braingames WCC Final vs. Kasparov in London. Kramnik won 8.5 - 6.5
2002: match vs. Deep Fritz in Bahrain. Tied 4 - 4
2004: Danemann WCC Final match vs. Leko in Brissago. Tied 7 - 7
2006: FIDE WCC Final match vs. Topalov in Elista. Tied 6 - 6 (Kramnik won rapid games 2.5 - 1.5)
2006: match vs. Deep fritz in Bonn. Kramnik lost 2 - 4

So Kramnik played 12 matches, winning 4, losing 5, and drawing 3.

Youngest Grandmasters

2007-01-07T05:12:00.000-03:00

I keep privately (well, not so privately) an updated list of all the youngest chess grandmasters in the history of the game. David Howell became a new GM so I have to update the list:

1. Sergey Karjakin (UKR) 12 yrs, 7 mo, 0 days
2. Parimarjan Negi (IND) 13 yrs, 4 mo, 22 days
3. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 13 yrs, 4 mo, 27 days
4. Bu Xiangzhi (CHN) 13 yrs, 10 mo, 13 days
5. Teimour Radjabov (AZE) 14 yrs, 0 mo, 14 days
6. Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) 14 yrs, 0 mo, 17 days
7. Etienne Bacrot (FRA) 14 yrs, 2 mo, 0 days
8. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 14 yrs, 4 mo, 0 days
9. Peter Leko (HUN) 14 yrs, 4 mo, 22 days
10. Yury Kuzubov (UKR) 14 yrs, 7 mo, 12 days
11. Ngoc Troungson Nguyen (VIE) 14 yrs, 10 mo, 0 days
12. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 15 yrs, 2 mo, 19 days
13. Pentala Harikrishna (IND) 15 yrs, 3 mo, 5 days
14. Koneru Humpy (IND) 15 yrs, 4 mo, 28 days
15. Judit Polgar (HUN) 15 yrs, 4 mo, 28 days
16. Alejandro Ramírez (CRC) 15 yrs, 5 mo, 14 days
17. Bobby Fischer (USA) 15 yrs, 6 mo, 1 day
18. David Howell (ENG) 16 yrs, 1 mo, 21 days (??)
19. Paco Vallejo (ESP) 16 yrs, 9 mo, 0 days
20. Garry Kasparov (RUS) 16 yrs, 11 mo, 29 days

I read somewhere that a Timur Gareev from Uzbekistan (born 3/3/88) became Asias' youngest GM in 2004 at 16 years of age, but I can't find any accurate information, so for the time being I will keep him off list.

I am quite sure Kasparov, Spassky and other super players from the past would have made their final GM norms much younger if they had had all the information available to players born in the 80s and 90s.

Just imagine them with chess programmes, databases and books. Fischer cooked up all his opening novelties with a chess set, board and genius, no Fritz nor Hiarcs nor Rybka at hand...

Questions

2007-01-03T16:18:00.000-03:00

If I hang a piece, and my opponent does not see it, did I still hang a piece?

PG-18

2007-01-02T15:33:00.000-03:00

This is the tone. Consider yourself warned.