Fight of Two Titanics

On the 8th of October in London for a long time waited match between the strongest chess player during the last fifteen years Garry Kasparov and the pretender for this title Vladimir Kramnik began. The match is said to be waited for a long time because it will determine who the strongest chess player on the planet is. Last time G.Kasparov fought for his title in 1995 when an Englishman Nigel Short pretended for the title of the champion. Then G.Kasparov has demolished the opponent easily, though he seemed to be dangerous before the competition. This time the fight is going to be very difficult, because differently from the other pretenders, up to now Vladimr Kramnik didn’t stand down. 23 parties were played and both of the players had gathered the same amount of points, that is 11,5. And it is obvious that the pretender feels absolutely normally while playing with the 37 years old champion. On the fifth of October during the press conference V.Kramnik didn’t speak much. He had only said that both of the players have chances to win and that he would do everything that depends on him in order to win the forthcoming match. The world champion on the contrary, spoke very talkative. He claimed that at his thirty-seven he’s got enough energy and he hopes to keep his title. Majority of the commentators say the opponents have equal opportunities to win, though the champion has a kind of advantage over the opponent. First of all this is because G.Kasparov has much more experience in matches and knows how to prepare properly for such a long distance. It is forecasted that G.Kasparov wins with the minimal scoring 8,5:7,5 or 9:7. During the survey that was hold at Lithuanian website of the tournaments on chess www.chess.lt , that translates this match on-line, almost 74% voted for Kasparov’s victory, 16% - for the draw game and 10 % thinks V.Kramnik will win the match. To my mind, the forecasts are a bit optimistically from the direction of the champion. He has not had such a serious opponent since the eighties when Anatolij Karpov was the twelfth almost invincible Chess champion. But the beginning of the duel seems to be more perspective for the pretender. During the first and the third party V.Kramnik played with the black chessmen and managed to defend in both of them. It’s true the champion has strengthened his position and the pretender managed to escape due to his quick wit only. But during the second party V.Kramnik has used up the advantage of the white chessmen and shot ahead. Peculiarity of G.Kasparov to concentrate more after the lost party is well known in the chess world. So it is very interesting how the champion who has been the winner for many years would feel lagging behind. Several more words should be said about the status of this match. The fact that the winner won’t be recognized as the official world champion is obvious, because G.Kasparov cancelled international chess federation (FIDE), which has its own world champion Alexander Khalifman from Russia. On the other hand two of the strongest world players meet during the match, and it will become clear who the strongest chess player on the planet, though not official, is.