Topalov is the new Chess Champion

[Sir Og]

Why are you being a chess_player_hater Pekka?

[Harovan]

He hates freedom and democracy, too.

Time to convince him. With a baseball bat.

[Pekka]

I'm not hating chess. Chess is extremely interesting game, strategic game that requirs lots of thought and intelligence.

[Barnabas]

how did the cute central european girl do?

[Lul Thyme]

By the way I use to follow the chess happening a little bit.
When the championships were split between Kasparov and someone else (which changed very often since they are a tournament every 2 years or something), almost everybody considered Kasparov the true champion.
When Kramnik beat him, he was considered the true holder of the title, although many people thought Kasparov could beat him in a rematch. Since Kasparov retired, by that logic Kramnik should be considered champion no?

since 1993 noone has really considered the FIDE champion , real world champion.
They have organized these tournaments often.
What is different this year??

EDIT: even Topalov's coach says Kramnik is "the successor of the Classical Chess World Title", which has always been considered the TRUE title.
So Topalov is FIDE champion which was never considered TRUE chess champion by almost anybody.

[Harovan]

I played actively chess in my youth and at one time was pretty good at it. In the matches between Kasparov and Karpov throughout the 80's I hardly missed to replay a single party, and be it the seemingly silliest 25-turn-draw. I eagerly looked for novelties and tried to apply and evaluate all variants given by commentators, and sometimes developed my own.

After Kasparovs silly revolt I lost interest in it and today only occasionally even take notice in these games. And I don't play actively anymore, either.

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
how did the cute central european girl do?

Polgar?
She finished last (of 8).
She has lots of hard background, having a kid etc...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
By the way I use to follow the chess happening a little bit.
When the championships were split between Kasparov and someone else (which changed very often since they are a tournament every 2 years or something), almost everybody considered Kasparov the true champion.
When Kramnik beat him, he was considered the true holder of the title, although many people thought Kasparov could beat him in a rematch. Since Kasparov retired, by that logic Kramnik should be considered champion no?

since 1993 noone has really considered the FIDE champion , real world champion.
They have organized these tournaments often.
What is different this year??

EDIT: even Topalov's coach says Kramnik is "the successor of the Classical Chess World Title", which has always been considered the TRUE title.
So Topalov is FIDE champion which was never considered TRUE chess champion by almost anybody.

Having an 8 player double RR with most of the world's most elite present appears to have legitimized the event somewhat.

Add this to Kasparov's retirement and the fact that Kramnik has had mediocre results for a supposed world champion and you get a situation where more people would recognize Topalev. When Kasparov was "world champion" even though he did not hold the FIDE title, people accepted him as champ mainly because it was hard to conceive of anyone better.

Right now, not many people are thinking of Kramnik as the best in the world.

What is needed is some form of reunification match now between Topalev and Kramnik. I think Topalev indicated he would play in such an event

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
how did the cute central european girl do?

My understanding is that she started badly and by mid-event seemed to have psychologically thrown in the towel and just wanted to be out of there. Apparently she had hopes of competing at the top end and was disappointed when her hopes were quickly dashed