The Chess Mind

See for yourself here, at least if "Russianbear" has translated the original right on Mig's Chess Ninja message board. At the press conference at the end of the match, following game 11, Kramnik seemed to say that not only was his preparation inadequate, but that he'd need to change his chess as well. According to the present interview, however, Kramnik thinks his chess is fine; what he really needs is a permanent team a la Anand and Topalov (and of course before them, Kasparov).

That's undoubtedly a very good idea, but is that all that really needs to change? My initial inclination is to say "no", but the more I think about it, the less sure I am. Topalov, for example, made a huge jump after doing some very heavy work with Ponomariov and then taking Cheparinov on board as a semi-permanent second. Kasparov and Anand benefited from such relationships as well, so I'm not in a rush to discount the idea. We'll see!

HT: Brian Karen

Here it is, once again c/o Jaideepblue (who should use an email address I can successfully reply to when he writes me).

The match is over, and Viswanathan Anand has retained his championship title, defeating Vladimir Kramnik 6.5-4.5. In the first half of the match, he dominated in every respect: his preparation was superior, he was able to reach positions where Kramnik was uncomfortable and his tactical prowess was superior. Even when Kramnik managed to reach playable positions out of the opening, something else would go wrong. After six games, Kramnik was almost fortunate to be down by only three points.

As the match wore on and neared its end, though, Kramnik started to turn the tables. Now it was his preparation that was better, and he started pressing in every game. It wasn't enough to save the match, but it did turn a rout into a genuine contest with a little drama.

So this week, in our final show on the match, we'll take a look at the last act. Game 9 was a great chance for Kramnik, who was just about winning near the end. In game 10, Kramnik even managed to win with his best novelty in the match. And then there was game 11 - a very interesting contest, but one in which Anand reasserted himself and drew confidently, putting an end to the match. Good and interesting games one and all, and we'll examine them tonight, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET. Log on to the Playchess.com server, go to the Broadcast room, and find Anand-Kramnik in the games list. Hope to see you there!

Another Anand interview can be found here (HT: Jaideepblue), while (HT: Brian Karen) a Jan Timman interview can be read here in its original Dutch or in some form of English on this translation page. Timman comes across as a pretty crotchety fellow in this interview, even citing as his own some ugly comments made by Mssrs. Kasparov and Topalov.

This interview with Surya Shekhar Ganguly isn't all that informative, but it isn't content-free either. It's a reasonable way for Anand fans and others to spend a minute of their time.

HT: "Titu"

They're out there in tons. This one from the Telegraph of India addresses the "killer instinct" issue, while this page on the ChessBase site includes two interviews while linking to many more (both print and video).

It's a puff piece, as it should be, but it's still a nice, quick read.

HT: Jaideepblue