Qatar Masters 2014

A big open is being held in Qatar and the main attraction is the participation of none other but a former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. I think this is the first time a (former) World Champion plays in an open tournament! And perhaps there is a good reason they don’t do it, besides, why should they – playing in luxury hotels with excellent appearance fees (in the region of tens of thousands Euros) and playing conditions, what’s there not to like? On the other hand, we all know how opens look like.

Kramnik started with two draws, against GM Halkias (rated 2519, but in fact much stronger than that) in an Evans Gambit (!) when he was worse, and against Shyam Sundar, rated 2484. I have in fact played Shyam back in 2008, in Benasque, when an interesting game ended in a draw. At least I was black then.

Kramnik was white against Shyam and I was very surprised to read that he considered himself “unlucky” in that game. Does a World Champion rated 300 points more than his opponent, and playing with the white pieces, need luck to beat his opponent? I am a big fan of Kramnik, but sometimes these guys are really way too entitled, expecting everything to come to them, even Lady Luck, when they can’t get the job done by playing good moves. And when this doesn’t happen, they whine about it! A shame, really.

Still, let’s not forget that Kramnik is a strong player. Today he produced a nice attacking effort:

Alex Colovic
A professional player, coach and blogger. Grandmaster since 2013.
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1 Comment
  • Nov 30,2014 at 5:40 am

    Qh5 more accurate takes away Bf8 possibility which still mates… Kramnik a surgeon till the final blow

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