The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Kramnik-Topalov match evenly poised

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Thursday, Oct 12, 2006
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Kramnik-Topalov match evenly poised

Elista: What may have been the penultimate game of the world chess championship ended in a draw on Tuesday, setting up a potentially dramatic encounter in the 12th and final game on Thursday.

The match between Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia is tied 5.5-5.5. If the last game is also drawn, there will be four fast games on Friday to try to break the deadlock.

While the game went off without a hitch on Tuesday, Kramnik, through his manager, sent a letter to the World Chess Federation and to journalists, reiterating his promise to sue the federation if the forfeit against him in Game 5 is not overturned and if that costs him the match. The federation, which posted Kramnik's letter on its website, has not responded to his threat.

Tuesday's game was a Slav Defense and repeated the move order from Game 9 for the first seven moves. That was surprising, because Kramnik lost that game badly. Even more surprising, it was Topalov who varied his moves first, perhaps because he feared that Kramnik might have found an improvement over the last few days. — AP

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