World Cup Final Preview |
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| Thursday, 29 August 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 By GM Daniel Gormally  Ok, the World Cup in Tromso is finally coming to a conclusion with the final to take place tomorrow between Vladimir Kramnik and Dimitry Andrekin. Here's my preview: Kramnik looks unstoppable in Tromso. There is a sense of fate about this final, in an event which has been dominated by Russian players, that it should be between the strongest Russian player, Kramnik, against the current Russian champion, Andrekin. Vlad will of course start a big favourite, but he really needs to finish the match in normal time in my opinion. Andrekin has looked superb in the rapids, looking like a really strong speed player indeed, and has thus far seemed to steer his matches towards the play-offs, confident in the knowledge his blitz skills will see him through. However he has now achieved his objective, he has qualified for the Candidates, so let's hope he takes the gloves off and tries to play chess at the classical time limits. Certainly Vlad is extremely hard to beat and Nigel Short, in his commentary on the event, has already referred to him as the "Rock of Gibraltar". The question is will Vlad make much progress with White. I see him playing his normal stuff as White and probing for an edge. However the head to head is not in his favour- Andrekin leads 2-0. If it goes to the rapids then the match becomes a 50/50 shot- but I'm far from certain that Andrekin will be able to resist Kramnik until then. The fact that in the final the match now becomes four games, is surely in favour of the stronger player. It makes an upset less likely. The other thing that has impressed me with Andrekin, besides his obvious strength at rapidplay, is his strong nerves and how fresh he looks. Because he hasn't been getting nervous, or at least on the face of it, it's enabled him to remain relatively fresh and he hasn't become as drained as some of the players. The fatigue was all too evident in the semi-finals as both Maxime and Toma collapsed horribly in the rapids. Maxime just seemed to give the game away with White, and Toma playing Black in the second game, was very well placed, but then just at the critical moment, continued to play to his solid style, when sharper stuff was needed. He played moves like ..a5?! when creative stuff with ..Re4!? was being analysed in the commentary room. I find it very hard to oppose Vlad here, he has looked so strong, and not at any point has he been in danger of losing a game (In our opinion, Korobov had Kramnik on the ropes in Game 2 - Pogonina.com). Although if anyone can pull off an upset, it's surely Andrekin- he seems to be improving all the time. Prediction: Win for Kramnik. GM Daniel Gormally is open for chess lessons. You can contact him using this This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Other posts by GM Danny Gormally: World Chess Cup Semi-Final preview World Chess Cup Quarter-Final preview World Chess Cup 1/8-final preview Why are Russians so good at chess? British Champs-2013 Ghent and now the British I'll never be fat again! Lessons learnt! The sad case of Borislav Ivanov: Part II Does Anyone Have a Cure for Anger Problems? The Depth of Chess Fundraising in chess Nurturing a Chess Prodigy The Sad Case of Borislav Ivanov 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men - Part II 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men One move, one line - Part II One move, one line Candidates Final Review & Preview of Upcoming World Championship Match Would Carlsen have beaten Capablanca?
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