Wijk aan Zee, Round 11: Carlsen Catches Kramnik
Only two rounds to go, and it's coming down to the wire. Almost all the games were drawn in the A and B groups today, but two of the three decisive ones were of great importance. Carlsen ground down Dominguez in what had been an even game most of the way, and is thus tied with Kramnik (who drew with Shirov) (The A-group's other winner was van Wely, who won a long game when Tiviakov finally blundered a drawn position). In the B group Giri was the only winner, defeating So and securing a one point lead over L'Ami and Ni Hua with two rounds to play. In the C group, all seven games were decisive, and since Li Chao was won of the winners he maintained his point and a half lead over Vocaturo, van Kampen and Robson.
Sorry for the short, late update, but it was a busy day! More info here.
Reader Comments (3)
Interesting and nice to hear and see that Kramnik and Shirov had a lengthy and - according to photos posted elsewhere on the Web - friendly and animated post-mortem after their game. Hard to imagine something similar between Kramnik and Topalov ... .
I was unsure where to post this, as it (also) refers to your previous item:
"Shirov - Kramnik (Another classic battle between these two, who were once friends, then deeply estranged.)"
I see your point - myself I witnessed them not shaking hands with each other at Corus back in 2001. Currently it seems their relationship is at least "somewhere in between friends and enemies".
A great battle between two endgame masters. At some point I was sure Shirov would take home the point, but Kramnik was extremely precise. I'd give the Game of the Day award to them.
BTW, it's round 11 :-)
Who would suggest it was a different round? :) Thanks, fixed it.