Kramnik wins 2013 Tromsø Chess World Cup

On Monday Vladimir Kramnik won the World Cup in Tromsø, Norway. The 14th World Champion easily held a draw with the black pieces — in fact when Dmitry Andreikin realized he was getting into trouble, he offered a draw on move 34.

Photos by Paul Truong

After 23 days of chess, and a tournament that started with 128 players from all over the world, the FIDE World Cup finally came to an end on Monday. Dmitry Andreikin needed to beat Vladimir Kramnik to force a tiebreak, but didn't manage to do so. In a much better position, Kramnik accepted his opponent's draw offer with a smile and became the winner of the 2013 World Cup. A deserved winner!

Andreikin's strategy for that last classical game made sense, and was somewhat similar to Garry Kasparov's opening choice in 1987 in Seville, when he needed to beat Anatoly Karpov to tie the match and keep his title. A quiet English opening (Kasparov also played 1.c4!), some manoeuvring, and trying to get something going.

Andreiking managed to get a lively position, and when he pushed his g-pawn he was quite optimistic, but Kramnik always felt comfortable and the computer agrees.

Source: chessvibes.com