[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Topalov is misreading the Chess Mind!

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Topalov is misreading the Chess Mind!
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1221688337.shtml


   During [1]my coverage of the eighth round of the Grand Slam Final, I
   wrote this:

     The upcoming world championship match is looking increasingly
     disappointing. At the start of the year, Anand and Kramnik were
     tied atop the rating list, and the match looked like the
     culminating moment in their careers. The two greatest players of
     the past dozen or so years not named Kasparov were finally having
     at it for ultimate bragging rights in the chess world. Now they're
     numbers five and six in the world, and both players are entering
     the match with poor results. What was an EVENT is in danger of
     becoming just another interesting battle between elite players.

   My point wasn't that Anand and Kramnik had become bums, but that, at
   the moment, they have dropped and become part of the pack. They
   haven't really been passed by the pack either - they're more like
   riders who had broken away, but have since been absorbed back into the
   peleton. They're still great players; but they've been out of form
   lately and (even leaving that aside) have lost their dominance.
   Compare that sentiment with this one, from the ever-gracious Veselin
   Topalov, who, ten seconds after returning to the top of the rating
   list after a couple of lousy years, had this to say:

     Q: Are you going to watch the Anand-Kramnik match? A: Of course I
     will analyse the games from this match, but let me confess, the
     match between no.5 and no.6 is not of that much interest for me.
     Kramnik is not the best player even in Russia. Morozevich, who won
     the Tal Memorial game vs. him, also topped him in the rating list.
     And Anand in Bilbao was a shadow of former great player. [N.B.:
     That's a Babelfish translation of part of a [2]Sport Express
     interview, courtesy of Jaideepblue. Russian readers are strongly
     urged to correct any serious mistakes in that translation.]

   These are strange comments from Topalov. First of all, didn't he learn
   anything from the run-up to his match with Kramnik? He had all sorts
   of demeaning things to say then, too, and all it did was motivate
   Kramnik further. Since both Anand and Kramnik enjoy (big) plus scores
   against Topalov, it's not as if he's going to intimidate them.

   Second, while Topalov has finally regained his form and tops the
   rating list and leads Anand by a whopping seven points, I guess he's
   forgotten about the rest of the year. In Wijk aan Zee, Anand only came
   in third, half a point out of first, but he was a point and a half
   ahead of Topalov. In Morelia/Linares, Anand came in first, a point
   ahead of Topalov. So while Bilbao was a real stinker for Anand,
   Topalov's rather condescending and dismissive remarks make a lot of
   sense only if we have reason to believe that Bilbao was representative
   of Anand's current abilities.

   I expect a Topalov victory against Kamsky later this year (though I
   won't shed any tears if the opposite result occurs), but think he will
   lose to the winner of the Anand-Kramnik match (hopefully very badly).

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1221089414.shtml
   2. http://news.sport-express.ru/online/ntext/25/nl256731.html