2008 World Chess Championship Updates
The 2008 World Chess Championship was opened on Tuesday, October 14 at the Art and Exhibition of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, with Vladimir Kramnik of Russia trying to regain his 2006 world title by competing against current World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand of India. The final game is expected to take place on Friday, October 31, unless a tie-breaker would extend the decision to the 2nd of November.
The World Chess Championship is the most important chess tournament in the world with a total prize fund of 1.5 million Euros. In this year's world championship, the city of Bonn and the German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück (chess enthusiast by declaration) hosts the reigning World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand of India (2783 FIDE rating points) and Russian chess player Vladimir (2772 points).
Anand and Kramnik have a rich background of rivalry: In 2000, while the world title was split into two separate events, Anand was named the 2000 FIDE World Champion and Kramnik was awarded the winner of the parallel event, the Classical World Chess Championship. Additionally, Anand was recognized the undisputed World Chess Champion after beating Kramnik at the 2007 New Mexico championship. The two are meeting again in Bonn, each one tries to get into the pantheon of multiple world chess title holders.
It has not been the best of times of both 2008 World Chess Championship competitors: Anand, who is ranked at number 5 at the recent FIDE rating list, released on October 1, while Kramnik follows him at number 6. Anand suffered a painful loss to Veselin Topalov during the fourth round of the Grand Slam Final Masters in Bilbao, while Kramnik lost to Arkadij Naiditsch, the second youngest player at the Dortmund Chess Meeting 2008. Nevertheless, the 2008 WCC still draw the attention of chess players, journalists and fans from all over the world.
The World Chess Championship is the most important chess tournament in the world with a total prize fund of 1.5 million Euros. In this year's world championship, the city of Bonn and the German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück (chess enthusiast by declaration) hosts the reigning World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand of India (2783 FIDE rating points) and Russian chess player Vladimir (2772 points).
Anand and Kramnik have a rich background of rivalry: In 2000, while the world title was split into two separate events, Anand was named the 2000 FIDE World Champion and Kramnik was awarded the winner of the parallel event, the Classical World Chess Championship. Additionally, Anand was recognized the undisputed World Chess Champion after beating Kramnik at the 2007 New Mexico championship. The two are meeting again in Bonn, each one tries to get into the pantheon of multiple world chess title holders.
It has not been the best of times of both 2008 World Chess Championship competitors: Anand, who is ranked at number 5 at the recent FIDE rating list, released on October 1, while Kramnik follows him at number 6. Anand suffered a painful loss to Veselin Topalov during the fourth round of the Grand Slam Final Masters in Bilbao, while Kramnik lost to Arkadij Naiditsch, the second youngest player at the Dortmund Chess Meeting 2008. Nevertheless, the 2008 WCC still draw the attention of chess players, journalists and fans from all over the world.