Elsewhere on the Web : Getting News on the Kramnik - Topalov Match

Saturday September 23, 2006

At the opening cermony for the World Chess Championship unification match, 21 September at Elista, Kalmykia, GM Vladimir Kramnik won the right to start the first game with the White pieces against GM Veselin Topalov. The first game of the 12-game match starts 23 September.

Because the last game of a match is subject to special considerations of match strategy, playing White in the first game is considered an advantage. In a short match, and the 2006 unification match is one of the shortest World Championship matches on record, it is even more of an advantage.

Following are links to sites which are guaranteed to provide up to the minute news on the match.

Official sites

• WorldChess2006.com • Site established for the match. View the games live.
• FIDE.com • Site of the World Chess Federation

Where to get news

• ChessBase.com • All ChessBase reports on the World Championship in Elista
• ChessNinja.com • Entries from The Daily Dirt Chess Blog tagged with '06 WCh'

Background articles

• Two players, two titles. But in chess city there can be only one winner • 'AS DIRECT descendants of Genghis Khan, the people of Kalmykia can be expected to have an appreciation of the finer points of battle.' • [18 September 2006; Times Newspapers Ltd.]
  
  
• King of Kalmykia • 'Life is not all plain sailing for Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the flamboyant leader of the Russian republic of Kalmykia.' • [21 September 2006; The Guardian]
  
  
• Chess world awaits true champion • 'A schism in the chess world that began in 1993 in London will be healed this month in Elista, the capital of the poor and barren Russian republic of Kalmykia on the Caspian Sea.' • [21 September 2006; International Herald Tribune / New York Times]
  
  

For more about the Unification Match, see our ChessChrono on the

• 2006 World Championship Unification Match

Index of all World Championship blog posts