World Cup final G1: Kramnik draws first blood

The FIDE World Cup is a knockout, starting with 128 players, with two games (90 min for 40 moves + 30 min for the rest, with 30 seconds increment) between pairs of players. The tiebreaks consist of two rapid games (25 min + 10 sec), then two accelerated games (10 min + 10 sec), and finally an Armageddon. The winner and the runner-up of the World Cup 2013 will qualify for the Candidates Tournament of the next World Championship cycle. The venue is the city of Tromsø, which lies in the northern-most region of Norway, almost 400 km inside the Arctic Circle. You can find all details and links to many ChessBase articles on Tromsø here. The World Cup starts on Sunday, August 11th and lasts until September 3rd (tiebreaks, closing ceremony). Each round lasts three days, while the final will consist of four classical games. Thursday August 29 is a free day. A detailed schedule can be found here.

Rest Day

The players decided to take very different approaches on their first official rest day. Andreikin stayed at the hotel to finalize his strategies while Kramnik... went fishing! Sometimes, relaxation is the best for of preparation.

An every day view of the Tromso sea side

Truly breathtaking

Cooking the old fashioned way

An ex-World Champion doing what he does... second best

Kramnik posing with the spoils of the day

Finals game one

Vladimir Kramnik pressured Dmitri Andreikin from the very beginning. However technique was still required as it was very unclear how to proceed with the positional advantages. After 29...Re8, Kramnik sacrificed the queen for rook and bishop, and as well as a thorny passed c-pawn, a move he had already planned when he played 28.d5! Dmitry had great difficulties coming up with a defensive plan, while little by little the former World Champion improved on his position.

Kramnik worked hard to convert his advantage and was rewarded for his efforts

The turning point was right after the time control, with 41.c7! forcing Black to enter a very difficult queen against two rooks endgame. Live commentator GM Nigel Short himself was unsure whether it could be won, though he did recall a similar situation in which Kramnik beat Leko. Kramnik in the post-mortem had no such doubts and said he felt it was winning and did not see what Black could do.

Kramnik spent time at a space center and described the very uncomfortable
conditions of the astronauts in space.

With only three games to go and 1-0 already on the board, Vladimir Kramnik could hardly hope for a better start.

All results of the final match

• All results and standings on the official site

Photos by Paul Trong

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: R1 – R2 – R3 – R4 – R5 - R6 - R7 The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.