Mexico R05: Anand, Grischuk and Gelfand win. Anand leads.

Mexico R04: Aronian wins, Leaders miss.

Mexico R03: Moro Wins, Anand Holds

Another fighting in Mexico, where the big clash of leaders and top favourites Anand and Kramnik saw Vladimir Kramnik on a Black side of a Russian Defense pushing hard in a favourable endgame (yes, Black can also try to win in the Petroff...), but Vishy Anand

Mexico R02: Kramnik, Anand win.

Well, that's what is called spectacular!!! Fighting chess in round 2! Vladimir Kramnik destroyed Alexander Morozevich with an unexpected (maybe home-cooked?) knight sacrifice, that led to a very unclear position, but Moro went down on the clock, made some poor moves and all ended quickly. Vishy Anand, simply outplayed his Armenian opponent on a black side of a Semi-slav.
He played a strong novelty which required precise play for White, but Aronian wasn't up to the task.
Svidler tried to squueze a win against Peter Leko, but you know how difficult it is to beat Leko in technical positions...
Gelfand-Grischuk was the only game where there was no real fight.
Well, another 12 rounds like this, and Mexico 2007 will be remembered as the greatest chess tournament ever played!

Mexico 2007: Round Two Pairings

Round 2: Friday, Sept. 14th 2007, 14:00h
Peter Svidler		Peter Leko
Boris Gelfand		Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian		Viswanathan Anand
Vladimir Kramnik		Alexander Morozevich

These are the pairings for round 2 of the World Chess Chapionship.
What do you think the results will be?

Mexico R01: All Games Drawn

Well, not an exciting start, four draws in less than 30 moves. Perhaps they didn't recover yet for the flight, as the positions that arose after the opening were all interesting.
I hope they'll show more fighting spirit in the next rounds!
Having said that... go Vladimir! :D

Mexico 2007: Round One Pairings

Vladimir Kramnik	1/2	Peter Svidler
Alexander Morozevich	1/2	Levon Aronian
Viswanathan Anand	1/2	Boris Gelfand
Alexander Grischuk	1/2	Peter Leko

That's how they will fight in the first round, that will start in a couple of hours.
What's your prediction about today's results?
Will Kramnik try to crash his long-time friend Peter Svidler or he'll go for a short draw?
I think he'll go for the blood!! He's very motivated to win this tournament and he'll not throw away his first White. Go Volodya!

Here are some pictures of the opening ceremony:

Some Pictures from Bratto: Updated!

That's the playing hall, more than 250 participants!

GM Burmakin, winner of the event with 7/9.


GM Godena, Italian and European Union Champion 2007.


Top GM Sergei Tiviakov, 5th place.


Chess legend GM Oleg Romanishin.


IM Fabio Bruno, first italian in the field.


IM Rolly Martinez who beat Tiviakov in round 8, 4th place.

Mexico 2007: Kramnik wins the poll, Anand close second.

These are the results of the poll the day before the start of the strongest World Chess Championship of all time:

Kramnik: 42% (11)
Anand: 38% (10)
Aronian: 7% (2)
Leko, Svider, Gelfand: 3%(3)
Morozevich, Grischuk: 0% (0)
Total Votes: 26

Reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik won also the poll in the Chessvibes.com Webisite:
Kramnik: 33%
Anand: 31%
Aronian: 20%
Morozevich: 7%
Leko: 6%
Gelfand: 2%
Grischuk: 1%
Svidler: 0%
Total Votes: 990

Botvinnik rocks, Kramnik too!

Finally I found my favourite player of the past and of the present and eventually I FOUND MY CHESS STYLE!! It has been too long time that I moved from an attacking style to a positional one, with great problems finding a durature repertoire. Now I can say it's all over! I founf my real style: it's a rock solid repertoire, with strategic unbalances to grind down my opponent in a long ending.
Such a Kramnik's style, but more fighting!
Iron Strategist!