World Championship Mexico, Round 11 – Anand!!

by ChessBase
9/26/2007 – Today it was all about one player. After Grischuk and Kramnik drew their game in 35 minutes and 13 moves; and after Gelfand and Svidler ceased hostilities after 22; and the Leko vs Aronian battle ended peacefully after 56 moves; we saw Anand going for the kill against Morozevich. His win leaves him a point and a half ahead of his nearest rival. Express report with lots of pictures.

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World Championship 2007 Mexico

The World Championship 2007 is taking place from September 12 to 30 in the Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel in Mexico City. Eight players are qualified – the tournament is a double round robin. The prize fund is US $1.3 million.

Round eleven express report

Round 11: Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, 14:00h
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
 Peter Svidler
Peter Leko 
½-½
 Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Viswanathan Anand 
1-0
 Alexander Morozevich

Current standings

Note: a number of readers have asked us what the numbers in the column after the ratings are. These are the Elo performances of the players. For instance: Anand is rated 2792. The results he has provided so far would be normal and expected for a player rated 2880, so he has played 88 points above his nominal rating. Gelfand's performance is 2784, Morozevich is playing as if his rating was 2691 (2758 – 67).

Full chess commentary by GM Mihail Marin will follow


Picture gallery


Viswanathan Anand at the start of his game against Alexander Morozevich


Alexander Morozevich facing the Indian top seed with the black pieces


Levon Aronian facing Peter Leko with the black pieces


Alexander Grischuk with white against Vladimir Kramnik's Petroff


Peter Leko and Levon Aronian, both at 50%, eager to improve their standings


Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler in their typical working positions


Peter Svidler often closes his eyes to think about the position


Occasionally he will open his eyes to glance at the position


Alexander Grischuk playing against Kramnik


Vladimir Kramnik thinking


The two playing the shortest game of the tournament so far


Anand vs Morozevich, the game of the day


The games of round eleven are under way


35 minutes after the start of the round Grischuk and Kramnik are in the press conference

Kramnik was asked why he chose to play the Petroff in this critical situation where he needs every point he can possible get to defend his title. Before he could answere Grischuk grabbed the mike and said: "Yes, I too would like to ask the same question." Kramnik explained that the Petroff can be a sharp weapon, as he had previously shown, and that he had prepared it as his chief opening for this event.


Meanwhile on another board: Peter Leko watches Anand vs Morovich reach its climax


Morozevich, in deep trouble, rotates a pawn in his right hand


Anand, who know he is winning, has left the stage to pace the players' rest area


Anand is back, and Morozevich looking for a final desperate way to save the game...


... but in the end streches out his hand in surrender


The arbiters rush in to complete the paper work of Anand's victory


The two players remain on the stage to analyse their game in animated discussion...


... since all the other games are over, and they have the stage all to themselves


A chess couple has been rooting for their hero with two Tamil signs saying "Victory" and "Anand" (the equivalent of "Go, Anand!"). David Johnson, right, is Canadian, Ranjana Ariaratnam, middle, is Californian with roots in Tamil Sri Lanka. On the left is Anand's wife Aruna.


The two ladies talk, somewhat disappointingly, in English, although both are fluent in Tamil


Anand and Morozevich in their press conference. Note that at this world championship all players have appeared to speak to the press, even after bitter defeats. We hope that Mexico has set an example that will be followed by other super tournaments.

Photos by Frederic Friedel in Mexico City


Full Schedule and Results (second half)

Round 8: Friday, Sept. 21st 2007, 14:00h
Peter Svidler 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Levon Aronian 
½-½
 Alexander Morozevich
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
 Viswanathan Anand
Peter Leko 
1-0
 Alexander Grischuk
Free day: Saturday, Sept. 22nd 2007
Round 9: Sunday, Sept. 23th 2007, 14:00h
Peter Leko
½-½
 Peter Svidler
Alexander Grischuk 
1-0
 Boris Gelfand
Viswanathan Anand 
½-½
 Levon Aronian
Alexander Morozevich 
1-0
 Vladimir Kramnik
Round 10: Monday, Sept. 24th 2007, 14:00h
Peter Svidler 
½-½
 Alexander Morozevich
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Viswanathan Anand
Levon Aronian 
1-0
 Alexander Grischuk
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
 Peter Leko
Round 11: Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, 14:00h
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
 Peter Svidler
Peter Leko 
½-½
 Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Viswanathan Anand 
1-0
 Alexander Morozevich
Free day: Wednesday, Sept. 26th 2007
Round 12: Thursday, Sept 27th 2007, 14:00h
Peter Svidler 
 
 Viswanathan Anand
Alexander Morozevich 
 
 Alexander Grischuk
Vladimir Kramnik 
 
 Peter Leko
Levon Aronian 
 
 Boris Gelfand
Games – Report
Round 13: Friday, Sept. 28th 2007, 14:00h
Levon Aronian 
 
 Peter Svidler
Boris Gelfand 
 
 Vladimir Kramnik
Peter Leko 
 
 Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Grischuk 
 
 Viswanathan Anand
Games – Report
Round 14: Saturday, Sept. 29th 2007, 14:00h
Peter Svidler 
 
 Alexander Grischuk
Viswanathan Anand 
 
 Peter Leko
Alexander Morozevich 
 
 Boris Gelfand
Vladimir Kramnik 
 
 Levon Aronian
Games – Report

Sunday, Sept. 30th 2007

Possible tiebreaks, closing ceremony


Live coverage by Yasser Seirawan on Playchess


Playchess commentator GM Yasser Seirawan

The games of the World Championship 2007, which start at 14:00h local time (check the time in your location here), will be broadcast live on the official site and on Playchess.com server, where there will be daily live audio commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, with a minimum of three one hour lectures per round, beginning approximately thirty minutes after play has started. For a charge of ten Ducats (about one Euro) a visitor gets a twelve hour pass to listen to the live lectures.

Ducats are the currency used on Playchess.com. You can purchase Ducats here. The amount will be credited to your playchess.com account. You need to allow one working day for processing. If you want your Ducats immediately you can order them using our Click&Buy service. Ducats can also be used to buy ChessBase products. Note that you can also purchase Ducats directly from Fritz or the Playchess client using the menu "Edit – Payments – Fill up account". This takes you to a special purchase page with your account name automatically passed on, to simplify the process.

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