WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HAS STARTED

It has started! Heated disputes between Kramnik and Topalov supporters are no longer relevant. Chess board and pieces will now decide which one of them deserves the world’s strongest player title.
It became clear that this match will not only de-termine the hol-der of the “uni-fied” crown, but also affect the image of present chess. Many fac-tors contribute to it: colorful and unique opening ceremony, Kramnik’s words that he has never been treated like a superstar of Zi-dane or Ronaldo caliber, represen-tative delegation of Russian poli-ticians, headed by Alexander Zhukov and Viacheslav Fetisov, and the world’s best chess journalists arriving to the match...
So no wonder there was no inch of room in the playing hall. The crowd was so excited that even did not notice the players being late for the game. Vladimir and Veselin appeared a couple of minutes after three, shook hands and started filling the scoresheets. After brief exchange of handshakes, a great devotee of the ancient game Alexander Zhukov consulted with Kramnik and pushed White’s d-pawn two squares forward.
An opening game has rarely been crucially important for the fate of the match, as it is considered that the players just do reconnaissance. However, this is not the case when the match consists of just 12 games, and certainly not the case when one of the players is Kramnik – he was taking the early lead in both of his title matches, against Kasparov and against Leko.
Did Topalov consider this tendency, when he successfully passed opening difficulties and started thinking about possible victory? I don’t think so. Veselin was just playing his brand of chess, and probably followed general strategy of exhausting the opponent. And he pushed too far. Kramnik, who had been on the ropes for a couple of hours, showed remarkable defensive technique and utilized his chance to the utmost.
The crowd was ecstatic – what a game! The players were discouraged, and it was hard to tell who is more upset. While Topalov could write this loss off as another unfortu-nate accident of the kind someti-mes occurs with him without in-fluencing his fighting spirit, Kramnik has to reassess his match plan. Yes, Vladi-mir is in the lead now, but he can-not ignore the ease with which the Bulgarian equalized and seized the initi-ative as Black. This point is (al-most) nothing but gift (like Fischer’s loss to Spassky in the first game), and psychological initiative obviously does not belong to Vladimir. Will this situation last for long