Aronian-Kramnik Match: Game 2 Drawn (Updated)
Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 12:11PM Vladimir Kramnik recovered somewhat from yesterday's loss with the white pieces, drawing the second game of his match with Levon Aronian in a well-played Berlin Defense. Aronian innovated first and had some slight pressure throughout, but Kramnik rose to the challenge and with accurate play neutralized White's initiative and held the draw.
You can replay the game with my notes here; meanwhile, we're hoping that they'll play an exhibition rapid game. Match rules state that a game that finishes in a draw in three hours or less will be followed by a rapid game that doesn't count for the match scores; unfortunately, Aronian (deliberately?) dragged the game out to the 3:05 mark. The commentators think they might agree to play such a game anyway, but we'll see.
UPDATE: There's no game today (Monday) - after every second game they have a rest day. Thus they'll play Tuesday and Wednesday, take Thursday off, and then finish Friday and Saturday.
Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for the timely analysis and all the recent blog posts - much appreciated.
The rapid exhibition is a strange idea - sort of turns the players into performing seals and I'm not surprised they played the game out to avoid it. It only make sense if it counts during a match, in my view. Before the match maybe, a few rapid games could be fun.
"The rapid exhibition is a strange idea - sort of turns the players into performing seals "
Come on!
Chess is a pleasure to play, they only worked for 3hours on that day.
A construction worker workers 8hours a day for peanuts, these guys are being paid a lot of money to do something they enjoy...
Lets get some perspective!
They should have played the game, they wouldn't be where they are without their fans.
[DM: Indeed! I helped pay their...oh wait, I didn't pay a cent. I agree with you that there's nothing demeaning about their playing the rapid game - in fact, they signed the contracts and didn't seem to have any problem with the idea. But they don't owe me anything. I'm free to be a chess fan or not, and if I don't like the product I'll tune out. (If anyone could have a gripe, it's the organizer.) Until I'm paying their bills, they're free - legally and morally - to do whatever they want. This doesn't mean I wouldn't have liked to see them play a rapid game, of course - that would have been a lot of fun, and I'm still hoping it'll happen before the match ends.]
Point taken DM.
However, if we look a little deeper, human beings are all interdependent on each other. No we didnt pay them directly, but indirectly, yes.
These grandmasters (so that they can train and play) are dependant on farmers, for food, construction workers to build venues, rich organziers and so on..
They clearly enjoy their craft, so it seems strange and mean spirited to draw out a drawn position to deprive people of a fun rapid game.
Especially when so much has gone into this event (audience, museum venue, commentators, internet telecast)
Im lucky enough to be in a similar position as chess grandmasters, that my work (animation) brings me as much pleasure as them.
However that realisation makes me feel responsible to share my talent/work and bring as much pleasure to others, even if Im inconvenienced.
If I were say Kramnik, and had won millions in prize money (WC matches etc), I would write more free articles for the chess public, go to schools and promote and share chess more.
Playing a second rapid game, without hesitation I would do it.
Just my opinion.
@perspective: If Kramnik and Aronian had to work in public for 8 hours a day on average, they would soon be completely exhausted - OK, so are maybe construction workers. A top marathon runner works less than 2 1/2 hours, a soccer player usually 90 minutes, a 100m sprinter less than 12 seconds. In all cases, it's just the visible part of their work.
The rapid game would have been a nice bonus, apparently it was Kramnik's idea, not sure if it is even mentioned in their contracts. Nice if it had happened, disappointing but no disaster that it didn't happen.
@Thomas
>>"If Kramnik and Aronian had to work in public for 8 hours a day on average"
They didnt, it was 3 hours and the blitz would have taken maybe 40 mins. Why exaggerate so much?
Also I dont consider this 'work', they are enjoying themselves.
Also another thing I noticed is this is a friendly exhibition, the players are smiling and in good spirits after the game and go into a deep analysis. Dont just share that good spirit and analysis soley with your opponent, share it with the thousands watching the games too.
Why dont they come to the press conference straight after the game and start the analysis there and double the length.
Probably they are not doing this on purpose but by habit, but why dont the organizers ask them to do it the fan friendly way?
(btw did you see how Aronian shook hands with the organizer after he lost the game and the organizer came over to congratulate them?)