Is the OTB Classical World Champion Chicken?
Most of you are aware that GM Vladimir Kramnik retained his world championship title by playing a drawn match with GM Peter Leko. It was an interesting match is some respects. Of the 14 games there were a large number of short draws. At the end Kramnik showed his class by playing some fighting chess when he was backed into a corner, requiring him to score a win at the end of the match to get the drawn match and retain his title. A short time after the match the Russians held a strong championship event called the 57th Russian Championship Super Final. Some top players were seeded directly into this strong event without the need to qualify, including Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik had earlier committed to playing in this event, but at the last moment he sent a doctor’s letter saying he was unable to compete due to being exhausted by his world championship match. Even later, just the day before the event started, Karpov also backed out without a real pretenc
