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Two great events and two predictable winners! Yes, Kramnik already won Dortmund with a round to go. He's still unblemished but Carlsen could not escape a loss. Kramnik breached the 2800 during the tournament on the Live Chess Ratings list. It is very clear that he is now back to his best. Expect a surge from here. Anand, Carlsen - guys, you better look out. Both the tournaments had a sprinkle of the future Chess World order - Maxime Vachier, Caruana, Quang Leim, and Anish Giri. Nakamura? Well, allow him to create his own destiny. Hard to predict! What do you think of the future of Chess?

Vladimir Kramnik is proving that he is a winner all the way. Well, if you forget the World Championship match where he was bulldozed by the devastating weapons Anand brought to the match, he has grown from strength to strength. When anyone else would feel the effects of the demoralizing match, Kramnik has taken it positively and even changed his style from conservative to heavy risk taking. With just two rounds to go at the Tal Memorial, he is almost the surprise leader. Now, there is more action on the Live Chess Rating list. Kramnik is approaching Topalov, Carlsen and Anand who are almost bunched up. It is almost as fair as it can be. Aronian is sure to throw in his hat sooner or later but even without it, the ratings list is almost sure to change even before the end of the event, and definitely by the time the London event is finished.

V Anand (2783) vs V Kramnik (2772) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Anand again opens with d4. He is showing immense confidence. Anand deviates from the Game 2 continuation. It's a bit surprising. We all thought that he should have been happy with that position. Looks like he has something else in store. 3 .... d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 O-O 6.e3 Nbd7 Kramnik wisely avoids complications that ensue with 6 ... c5 where Anand will be more comfortable. 7.a3 c5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 exd5 10.dxc5 Nxc5 11.Be5 Bf5 11 ... Bf6 is more popular. 12.Be2 Bf6 Offers to exchange the strong bishop. White still maintains an edge though. 13.Bxf6 Qxf6 14.Nd4 Ne6 15.Nxf5 Qxf5 16.O-O Rfd8 Kramnik is playing fast. He seems to be well prepared today after yesterday's fiasco. 17.Bg4 Qe5 18.Qb3 Nc5 19.Qb5 Anand is trying hard to squeeze some advantage out of the position, but it seems to be dead equal and not the kind of position that Anand would like to be in. The more unbalanced, the better he usually feels. 19 ... b6 ...

Game 2 has Anand with the white pieces. The fact that he easily stood his ground with black in the first game is quite a psychological advantage. Anand usually goes all out when he is prepared, as we saw in Mexico. Let's see what he has up his sleeve today. Live Annotated Game Key Moments (Please see Diagram) 1. d4 (Already a surprise. Anand usually plays e4 in almost all of his games. Kramnik will surely be surprised but this is the World Championships and I'm sure he is prepared for d4 but probably not for what follows) 1.... Nf6 2. c4 e6. 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 f3 ?! Probably it's a good weapon in Anand's hands. Surely, Kramnik may not have prepared for this line. It's a Nimzo Indian Sämisch variation. Kramnik will be tested today and has to demonstrate all his technical skills to equalize. Go Anand! 4...d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.dxc5 This is a popular continuation in this variation. White has scattered pawns, but he still has an extra pawn. Note that white r...

Anand Kramnik Live Coverage The lots have been drawn and Kramnik will play with the white pieces on the first day. It is usually good to have the white pieces since the player can choose to start aggressively and get the psychological edge. Also, since opening preparations are of the highest quality during such matches, Kramnik has a chance to strike with deadly effect. Anand would have prefered the white pieces definitely since he likes to attack. From our observations of most matches, we see that the first game is usually drawn since the players are more than happy to play a solid game and calm the dangling nerves. As both Anand and Kramnik mentioned in yesterday's press conference, they are very keen to start playing. Prepartion for World Class matches is brutal and this keeness is understandable.

After the Las Palmas game, Kramnik and Anand next met at the board at Belgrade in 1997. Anand had to win this game to even their head to head score. Click here for the Key moments and to view the game

Did you know that Kramnik was comprehensively beaten by Alexei Shirov in a 10 game Candidates match in 1998? Kramnik's later wins over Kasparov, Leko, and Topalov overshadowed this loss. Kramnik lost to Shirov -2 +0 with seven draws. Shirov won the 4th and the 9th games of the match with in a Petrov (Modern Attack) and Neo-Grunfeld Defense game respectively. The 9th game win was with black. The Shirov - Kasparov match for the title did not materialize for want of sponsorship.

Carlsen plays the suffering GM Leinier Dominguez (CUB, 2708) with white today and has another chance to reach for the No. 1 spot in the live chess ratings. The current standings are as follows: 01 V Anand 2798 02 M Carlsen 2795 03 V Ivanchuk 2791.5 04 A Morozevich 2788 05 V Topalov 2777 06 V Kramnik 2772.9 07 P Leko 2746 08 Radjabov 2744 09 S Mamedyarov 2740.8 10 A Shirov 2739.4

So who will you be watching ? US rooting for Kamsky we know, India for Anand. Topalov and Kramnik have global appeal too of course. Any predictions ?

Update Kramnik - Van Wely (Draw) Ivanchuk - Polgar (Draw) Adams - Gelfand (Draw, what else) In other interesting games in the other groups, Harikrishna was winning against Short but he seems to have messed up his winning chances. Same with Stellwagen and Li Chao, they both lost significant winning edges against Humpy and Irina Krush respectively. Hou Yifan is putting up a good show against the 2700 Bacrot. A draw is still possible although Bacrot is piling on the pressure now. The other prodigy Negi is almost equal against Sweden's Pontus Carlsson.

Corus mid day live commentary Mamedyarov vs Carlsen Mamedyarov always had a plus and was almost close to a significant plus, but he delayed the f pawn advance. Carlsen then managed to gain equality by move 23. Ivanchuk vs Polgar This queen's indian defence game was always balanced and Polgar has a slight edge in the middle game. Aronian vs Topalov By far one of the most exciting games on display today. Topalov made some amazing moves to bring the white king into the middle. But he missed a promising continuation and the game is drawish. Radjabov vs Anand A Semi-slav game with 5. Bg6 h6 Anand chose to sacrifice his castling rights to gain two pawns but Radjabov gave them back to get a decent edge by the middle game stage. Anand missed the right continuation to achieve balance.

This is my favorite list of players to watch at this year's Corus Chess tournament. What's yours, any suggestions ? I'll soon be adding the reasons to the players names. GM Group A Anand vs Kramnik - a preview of the titanic struggle later in the year ! Magnus Carlsen - can he start this year like he ended the last one ? Veselin Topalov - a bit forgotten last year. This is his chance, right ? GM Group B Ivan Cheparinov - How about Topalov winning the A Group and Cheparinov the B ? Nigel Short - His first real chance to start climbing up. Come on, Short. Koneru Humpy - Her chance to make an impression in an elite men's tournament. Hou Yifan - Can she hold her own against such a strong field ? Stellwagen (for locals) - Time to move up and take the place of veterans in Holland. GM Group C Fabiano Caruana - Top favorite to win the C and try for the B next year. Parimarjan Negi - Other prodigies have left you behind. Wake up, you can do it ! John van der Wiel - Show the kids...

The focus will obviously be on the Kramnik - Anand rivarly and now that they are tied for the top spot in the world with exactly the same ELO points, this tournament will more or less serve as a tie-break. Topalov has lost a lot of the headlines to the top two, so he'll probably grab this chance to try and get some. Carlsen, Mamedyarov, and the ever dangerous Judit Polgar are others to watch. The Group A of the Corus Chess Tournaments reads like a Who's who in chess. Here's the list updated with the January 2008 Ratings. Note that Ivanchuk for example, appears second but is ninth in the world because he slipped by the time the Corus tournament was announced and the Ratings list was updated. Same with Leko and Aronian too and so on. Kramnik moved up. World Rank, Name, Country, Rating GM Group A 1 GM Viswanathan Anand India 2799 9 GM Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2751 1 GM Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2799 3 GM Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2780 8 GM Peter Leko Hungary 2753 6 GM Shakryar Ma...

A preview of the January ratings and a few observations I made. I'm not yet sure if the World Cup results will be included. If yes, then a lot of other changes are possible. Kramnik and Anand will probably be tied for the World No.1 position. Big loser on points, no marks here for the correct guess, yes, Ivanchuk losing more than 30 pts (has already started to make up for it, though) Topalov moves to clear third with 2780. Mamedyarov gains smart points and he is likely to be fourth on the list. Big movers up - Karjakin, Cheparinov, Svidler and Carlsen. Sasikiran moves up a bit. Among the ladies, Koneru Humpy is inching up on Judit Polgar, even though she is not yet a match in class. She will be at 2612. Polgar loses a couple of points. Hou Yifan gains impressively.

World Champion V Anand of India and V Kramnik of Russia battle it out for the world championshiop title in 2008. The details have just been announced. The winner of this match will play the winner of Kamsky and Topalov in a bid to find a solid world champion. When: From October 11 – 30, 2008 Where: Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn Overall Prize fund: 1,5 Million Euro Patron: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück Main sponsor: Evonik Industries AG As per the announcement on the official site , the match will consist of twelve games, played under classical time controls, in the period from October 11 to October 28, 2008. If there is a tie at the end of these games a tiebreak will be played on October 30, 2008. The prize fund, which will be split equally between the players, is 1,5 million Euro (approximately 2,1 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE licensee fees. More details on this link - http://www.uep-worldchess.com/ Click the News link on ...

Gata Kamsky won the World Cup Chess tournament 2007 being played at Khanty Mansiysk. What was expected to be a fiery battle in the end fizzled out into a draw by the 35th move. However, Kamsky was the one bound to break into a smile as he won $ 120 000. Shirov managed $ 80 000 in the end. Shirov did provoke Kamsky to fight a complicated battle. He offered a knight in the middle game but Kamsky declined it with his customary cool way and went on to sacrifice an exchange and then advance the dangerous e-pawn. The draw was agreed when Shirov could no longer prevent the perpetual thanks to Kamsky's queen. Kamsky now meets Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria for a chance to meet the winner of Vishwanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. The eventual winner is to be considered the absolute World Champion.

Gata Kamsky of USA held on to his lead against Alexei Shirov of Spain in the finals of World Cup Chess 2007 being held at Khanty Mansiysk. The final is a four game affair with normal time, then rapid, blitz games to break a tie. Today's drawn game: The winner here meets Veselin Topalov for a chance to challenge the winner of Anand and Kramnik. The results so far are as follows: Game 1 - Draw after a brief struggle. Shirov cannot break the solid Kamsky's defence. Game 2- Kamsky wins a thrilling game which could have swung either way. Shirov had chances only if Kamsky made minor errors but Kamsky displayed his strength of will to prevail Game 3- Is again a draw. Shirov tries for 41 moves before the peace treaty is signed. Tomorrow, Shirov must win with black pieces to tie the match and move to the tie-breaks. On current form, Kamsky is expected to at least draw and hang to his lead and hence win the title, but with the Alexei "Fire on the board" Shirov, you never can be...