Elsewhere on the Web : Kramnik Interview
Saturday October 30, 2004
His head still spinning from the remarkable last game of his Dannemann World Championship match, Vladimir Kramnik granted a long interview to Yuri Vasiliev of Russian-language Sport Express. For those of us who don't understand Russian, ChessBase.com published What did Vladimir say?, a full translation into English.
About the 14th game of the match, where he needed a win to prevent his title from passing to Peter Leko : 'I pressed in the last few games quite strongly, but every time he would by some miracle escape. But miracles must end at some point. And they ended.' • About his opponent's opening preparation : 'I was caught off guard by the sheer quality of his preparation! In every opening, in every variation I was met by a novelty!' • About whether he will or won't play a unification match with the FIDE World Champion : 'I consider myself completely free from any kind of obligations. I do not owe anything to anyone. I played a match for World Championship and defended my title. In general, I am positively inclined towards the idea of unification, but we need to discuss conditions under which this unification can take place.'
As for the FIDE World Championship (see Elsewhere on the Web 16 October 2004), there is still no confirmation from either Rustam Kasimdzhanov or Garry Kasparov that they have agreed to play under FIDE's proposed terms.