| Is the chess world close to the emergence of an absolute champion? Indian Viswanathan Anand and Spanish citizen of Russian origin Alexey Shirov will meet in the final of the world chess championship using the so-called “knockout system”. This became known after these two grandmasters, with the same score of 2.5:1.5, defeated their semi-final opponents in the capital of India - the British Michael Adams and the 17-year-old Russian Alexander Grischuk, respectively. Anand and Shirov will hold the final not in Delhi, but in Tehran. The match will consist of six games of classical chess and, if necessary, a traditional “knockout” tiebreak of fights with a shortened time control.
Experts almost unanimously call Vishy Anand the favorite of the final, who went through the tournament without defeats or noticeable breakdowns, easily crushing all competitors (except, perhaps, our former FIDE champion Alexander Khalifman, with whom the Indian had to play blitz). At the same time, Anand, unlike his opponent, did not participate a month and a half ago in a grueling team competition - the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, so he had more time to prepare for the “knockout” and obviously retained plenty of strength.
However, the motivation of the “new Spaniard” Shirov for the final seems more than serious: Alexey will not only play for the title of the new king of chess according to the International Federation and for a prize of over $ 1 million, but also for his violated rights in relations with another organization - the World Chess Council (PCA). It is worth recalling that two years ago, the head of the RCA, Luis Rentero, and the world champion Garry Kasparov, who stood behind him, elected Alexey as one of the contenders for the title of the strongest chess player in the world. The other was Russian Vladimir Kramnik. The match between them ended in victory for Shirov. After which Kramnik received his share of the prize money, and his winner began to wait for the final meeting with Kasparov. But he didn’t wait. The Rentero trust unexpectedly collapsed. Shirov was not paid anything, not even compensation, and after some time Garry Kimovich found new sponsors from the British company Brain Games Network for the decisive match, but not with Shirov, but with... Kramnik. Hidalgo Shirov had no choice but to sue Mr. Rentero, since they are now compatriots. However, Alexey’s chances of suing the former president of the RSA for at least some money are very slim.
But Shirov is quite capable of winning a moral victory over both the former world champion Kasparov and Kramnik, who replaced him. He just needs to win against Anand, and he will have a completely official title in his pocket - FIDE world champion. On the other hand, that same victory over Kramnik in the RCA candidate match will give Shirov the right to claim the title of absolute world champion. And, knowing the ambitions of our former compatriot, many experts believe that in Shirov, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will receive a very uncomfortable champion.
Meanwhile, simultaneously with the end of the men's semifinals in Delhi, Chinese Xie Jun confirmed her title as women's world champion. Six months ago, she won the world championship match under the auspices of FIDE against Russian Alisa Galliamova, and now she managed to become the best in the “knockout system”, beating her compatriot Qin Kanying in the final - 2.5: 1.5. Thus, in the person of Xie Jun, the world has an absolute champion, unlike the male half of the chess kingdom. The strongest chess players in the world | FIDE rating | | PCA rating | | place | glasses | place | glasses | | Garry Kasparov (Russia) | 1 | 2849 | 1-2 | 2792 | | Viswanathan Anand (India) | 2 | 2774 | 3 | 2732 | | Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) | 3 | 2772 | 1-2 | 2792 | | Michael Adams (England) | 4 | 2754 | 13 | 2666 | | Peter Leko (Hungary) | 5 | 2748 | 4 | 2717 | | Alexey Shirov (Spain) | 6 | 2746 | 6 | 2701 | | Alexander Morozevich (Russia) | 7 | 2734 | 5 | 2706 | | Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) | 8 | 2716 | 9 | 2680 | | Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) | 9 | 2707 | 8 | 2687 | | Anatoly Karpov (Russia) | 11 | 2699 | 24 | 2629 | | Alexander Khalifman (Russia) | 28 | 2658 | 11 | 2671 | | Alexander Grischuk (Russia) | 88 | 2601 | 15 | 2657 |
Alexander GERZMARK
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