World Chess Championship 2006

The opponents of the 2006 World Chess Championship

Portraits
	Vladimir Kramnik	Wesselin Topalow
nation	Russia	Bulgaria
status	Classic world champion since 2000	FIDE world champion since 2005
Age	31 years	31 years
Elo rating (July 2006)	2743	2813

The 2006 World Chess Championship was the duel between the classic world chess champion, Wladimir Kramnik, who is recognized by the majority of the chess world, and FIDE world champion Wesselin Topalow , which ended the division of the world championship title that had existed since 1993 as a reunification battle .

The competition took place from September 23 to October 13, 2006 in the Chess City building complex in the Kalmyk capital Elista in Russia . As Chief Judge of the Dutch acted Geurt Gijssen . World champion after rapid chess - tiebreaker was Kramnik.

background

There had been two rival world titles since 1993. World champion Garri Kasparow had fallen out with the world chess federation FIDE , was dismissed and founded the rival organization Professional Chess Association , with which he continued to claim the later so-called "classic" world championship title. FIDE continued to choose its own "official" world champions, but these were not recognized by the majority of the chess public. Over the years there have been several attempts to reunite the two titles, but they were not crowned with success until 2006.

course

Playing conditions

Twelve games were played with classic tournament time (120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, then from move 61 onwards 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move).

Summary

Kramnik lost once without a fight due to the so-called "toilet war", a dispute over Kramnik's use of the toilets, which was one of the highlights in Kramnik's non-appearance for the fifth game. However, he later made up for this. When there was no winner after twelve games, four quick games with 25 minutes each and a time bonus of 10 seconds per move were played. Gijssen solved the color distribution by Kramnik taking a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other hand and clenching it into a fist. Topalow then pointed to a fist and in the first quick game received the color of the pawn in it. This meant that no third parties had to be involved in the draw. Kramnik won the quick games. If the score was still undecided after the four quick games, two blitz games of 5 minutes each with a time bonus of 10 seconds per move would have been possible . It was the first tiebreaker in a classic world chess championship and the only world championship in which only 1. d4 was played as the first move.

Lots

→ Main article : 2006 World Chess Championship / games

	01	02	03	04th	05	06th	07th	08th	09	10	11	12	was standing	S1	S2	S3	S4	was standing	total
Vladimir Kramnik	1	1	½	½	-	½	½	0	0	1	½	½	6th	½	1	0	1	2.5	8.5
Wesselin Topalow	0	0	½	½	+	½	½	1	1	0	½	½	6th	½	0	1	0	1.5	7.5

consequences

The two opponents Kramnik and Topalow subsequently received simplified conditions for participation in the world championships: Kramnik took Topalow's place in the 2007 round-robin chess world championship , in which he lost the world title to Viswanathan Anand . Against this he played a revenge match in 2008 , in which he did not succeed in regaining the world title.

Topalow got direct access to the 2009 candidate final against Gata Kamsky , the winner of the 2007 World Chess Cup . He won this and was now allowed to play in the 2010 World Chess Championship against Anand for the world title. However, he lost the competition with 5.5 - 6.5.

swell

1. ↑ chessbase.com: Elista 2006: Kramnik wins game one . September 23, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2009
2. ↑ Schach 10/2006, p. 8 ff.
3. ↑ Schach 10/2006, pp. 28-30.

Web links

• Tournament report and games at chessgames.com. Retrieved November 12, 2012 .