In 2006 a World Championship Reunification Match between FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov and classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik was held, in Elista, Kalmykia, from September 21 to October 13. It consisted of twelve games, and carried a prize sum of US $500,000 USD per player – regardless of the outcome. The winner of the match would become the unified and sole world champion.
The match was breathtaking, and gained world-wide attention. It attracted the largest number of visitors to our news page, chessbase.com. We published 60 reports, someimes attracting over 100,000 uniques per day. There were a number of reasons for the interest, which was not just drawn by the action on the chessboard. I will come to that in a moment.
Note that all the games discussed in this chapter are given at the end, in our replay app, where you can follow the moves and use an engine to analyse and understand what transpired.
Kramnik started the match in great form, with a fighting 75-move game one that lasted six and a half hours. Topalov played a novelty, achieved a drawing position, but pressed for a win, blundered and lost. The second game was one of the most exciting games anyone has seen in years. Topalov pulled out his Bulgarian chainsaw and went after Kramnik's king. With everything he had. Kramnik did the iceman thing, remaining cool, taking a pawn Topalov sacrificed and sitting down to whether one of the scariest attacks seen in top-level chess. On move 31 Kramnik committed a disastrous blunder, but Topalov did not spot the instant win. Slowly Kramnik built up counterchances, and traded down to an advantageous endgame, and ground out a second win in two games.
The third game was a short uneventful draw. In game four Topalov once again came out fighting, sacrificed a pawn, gnawed away at Kramnik's defence and pushed hard in an advantageous endgame. But after five exhausting hours of play he had to concede a disappointing draw, leaving the classical chess world champion with a two-point lead.
The toilet scandal
Then came the news that Veselin Topalov, through his manager Silvio Danialov, was casting suspicion on Vladimir Kramnik's conduct during the games. The Bulgarian team had examined the video recordings from the restrooms and noted that Kramnik was visiting the attached bathroom, which had no video surveillance, unreasonably often. They made a protocol of Kramnik's bathroom visits, in this style:
15.54 – Kramnik plays move 15
15.55 – Goes into the bathroom
15.56 – Goes out of the bathroom
15.57 – Goes into the bathroom
15.59 – Goes out of the bathroom
16.03 – Goes into the bathroom
16.04 – Goes out the bathroom
16.07 – Comes out for move 16
“Veselin Topalov is disturbed by the suspicious behaviour of his opponent Mr. Vladimir Kramnik, who takes his most significant decisions in the bathroom," the delegation said. They demanded that FIDE should stop the use of the private bathrooms for both players. If a player needed to go to the bathroom, he could use the public bathroom, but only with permission from the Arbiter and accompanied by an assistant arbiter. In addition, the Organizing Committee had to make the videotapes from the restrooms available to all journalists. "Should this extremely serious problem remain unsolved by 10.00 o’clock tomorrow (September 29th, 2006)," the delegation wrote, "we would seriously reconsider the participation of the World Champion Veselin Topalov in this match."
When the Organizing Committee acquiesced, a few hours before the start of game 5, Kramnik decided not to appear for the next game. "The protests of the Topalov team and the suspicions ... are utterly disgraceful and are touching Mr. Kramnik’s privacy," his delegation wrote in an open letter to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. "Mr. Kramnik will stop playing this match as long as FIDE is not ready to respect Mr. Kramnik’s rights, in this case to use the toilet of his own restroom whenever he wishes to do so."
This is how game five unfolded, on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2006: Scheduled for 15:00h, the game was started at 15:22h: Topalov was sitting at the board, with Kramnik's clock is running. Kramnik was in his rest room, and is waiting for his toilet to open. At 17:00h Chief Arbiter Geurt Gijssen confirmed that Kramnik has forfeited the fifth game.
In a press release, his delegation stated: "Mr. Kramnik will stop playing this match as long as FIDE is not ready to respect Mr. Kramnik’s rights, in this case to use the toilet of his own restroom whenever he wishes to do so."
On October 1st, FIDE issued a press release stating that "the issue of the bathrooms" had been finally resolved: "Representatives of the two teams agreed on the allocation of the restrooms between the players. The rooms will be assigned to each player on a permanent basis until the end of the match." The Tolapov insisted that the forfeit result of game five had to stand. "The 3:2 result has already been fixed by judges," the Topalov team said. "It cannot be changed. If the result of the fifth game is cancelled, we are leaving the match." And in any case: “if the match will continue, the World Champion will refrain from shaking hands with Mr. Kramnik before the games and will not take part in joint press conferences with him.”
Just half an hour before the scheduled start of game six, Vladimir Kramnik, who had received public support and encouragement by 38 of his colleagues, issued a statement saying he would, in fact, play the game, but under protest and conditional to a later clarification of the status of game five. "I had to assess between personal interests and those of the entire chess world," he said.
The good news: Topalov and Kramnik shook hands before the game, and even smiled! They were hungry for chess. And the world breathed a sigh of relief. In the ensuing game Topalov, determined to get his first over-the-board win in this match, played very aggressively, but Kramnik cold-bloodly held.
Fritzgate
Fifteen minutes before the start of game seven, Silvio Danailov, he manager of Veselin Topalov, wrote: "After very detailed analysis of all games of the match, we would like to present to your attention coincidence statistics of the moves of GM Kramnik with recommendations of chess program Fritz 9." This is what he listed:
- First game: From 75 moves: After the 12th move of Topalov Ba6, a novelty, from 65 remaining moves – 41 moves match with the first line of Fritz 9. (63% matches)
- Second game: From 63 moves: After 17th move, where the theory ends, from remaining 46 moves – 40 moves match with the first line of Fritz 9. (87% matches)
- Third game: From 38 moves: after 10th move, when the theory ends, from 46 remaining moves* – 40 match with the first line of Fritz 9. (86% matches)*
- Forth game: From 54 moves: After 14th move, when the theory ends, from 40 remaining moves – 30 match with the first line of Fritz 9. (75% matches)
- Sixth game: From 31 moves: After 13th move, when the theory ends, from 18 remaining moves – 14 match with the first line of Fritz9. (78% matches)
Thus, out of 5 games – 78%** of GM Kramnik’s moves match with the first line of Fritz9.
* Game Three had only 38 moves, 28 after theory.
** Actually (41+40+40+30+14) / (65+46+46+40+18) = 165/215 = 76.7%, as Jeff Sonas noted.
In game seven, Topalov could not get any significant advantage from his third white game in a row, a Queen's Gambit Accepted. He sacrificed two pawns in order to get some activity, but his initiative was just sufficient to maintain the balance even. The game ended after 60 move in a draw by repetition. Kramnik was now leading by 4:3.
The eighth game, a Semi-Slav Meran, ended after four and a half hours and 52 moves with the first over-the-board victory for FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov in this match. The official score was now 4:4, with four games to go.
Game nine was a rather one-sided affair. Kramnik made some early strategic concessions and could not get any kind of tactical compensation. Under psychological pressure the classical world champion resigned after 39 moves. Topalov was now in the lead, 5:4.
Action on Playchess
On a fair Saturday afternoon in Europe – early morning in America – people traditionally go shopping. Or picnic in the woods. Bicycle tours. Catch a matinee. "You are not going to watch chess, again, are you?" a lady says. He was going to. Together with thousands of others from all over the world, on Playchess.com.
The record for the largest number of visitors logged in simultaneously was once again broken: over 8,500 at peak, testing the power of our chess servers to their limit. But recent upgrades and optimisation of the server software paid off: no glitches, in spite of the well-frequented audio commentary board of GM Yasser Seirawan.
At times there were over 50 GMs watching game nine, discussing with each other and with the visitors, most of whom are heavily armed with the latest chess engines. An exciting, turbulent and emotionally charged experience.
Garry Kasparov, watching game ten on Playchess, took all of fifty milliseconds to react to Topalov's 24...f6?? "But doesn't that lose? Of course it loses!" Right he was, the game, which had brought Kramnik advantages out of the opening, was now a clear win, which he completed in 43 moves. With two games to go, the score is now 5:5.
In a letter to FIDE Kramnik's team made it clear that he was playing the match, including a possible tiebreak, up to the last move under protest. If the decision regarding the fifth game would have any influence on Topalov receiving the title, after being granted a free point for the unplayed game, he, Kramnik, made it clear that he would recognize Topalov as World Champion and would take legal action against FIDE. As a sign of good will, Kramnik requested FIDE to arrange for game five to be played out on the board immediately after game 12. That in his opinion was the only way to alleviate the personal, sporting, judicial and ethical injuries that have been incurred by him.
The eleventh, penultimate game was a fighting draw and ended after five hours and 66 moves. In the last part of the game it was Kramnik with black who was pressing for a win. The twelfth game ended in a 47-move draw, with Topalov harbouring slight hopes to win. This left the final score at 6:6.
The dramatic tiebreak finish of the World Chess Championship in Elista ended in victory for Vladimir Kramnik, who won two games and drew one to take the unified World Chess Championship title. Thousands watched the events unfold on the Playchess server, where GM Yasser Seirawan provided live audio commentary.
Immediately after Topalov extended his hand in a sign of resigning the fourth tiebreak game, the crowd became ecstatic. There were shouts, applause, friendly slaps and handshakes… Kramnik left the table, raised his fist to the sky, and went into tight embrace of his manager Carsten Hensel. Other team members were also there – Illescas, Rublevsky, Motylev, Krylov, Rösch, and even the cook. The chess world had a new Absolute World Champion.
Back in Bulgaria Topalov said that he was not sure if he will be invited to participate in the next World Championship, which was scheduled to start a year later, in October, in Mexico City. His manager Silvio Danailov demanded a March rematch against Kramnik: “FIDE regulations allow every world champion that has lost the title to challenge the titleholder.” But Kramnik issued a firm nyet to that idea.
And here are all the games of the Reunification World Championship match in Elista 2006. You can replay the moves and analyse with the attached engine. Of course if you have Mega Database you will find all the games there, deeply annotated by Mikhail Marin, who attended the championship in Elista. To give you an impression of his work we have included his annotation of game two.
Addendum
Two months after the match Topalov gave a startling interview to a Spanish daily, claiming that his loss was orchestrated by the KGB, which also threatened him and his team physically. He said there were "clear indications of cheating" in the way Kramnik went to the bathroom, came out and played instantly. He believed that Kramnik's team did not know what was going on – he was not getting help from them, but from Russians who were not part of the chess world, from non-professional chess players or from the KGB. But the Kremlin would never admit that Kramnik cheated. The method was improved during the latter part of the match, and in fact played a decisive role in the tie-break games. There "they had a foolproof system", and in the fourth game Kramnik "made a move that would only occur to a computer." Topalov guessed that his opponent was using an electronic device hidden on his body. "With the technology the Russians have, Kramnik will be invincible in a match." – The interview is still available online (on the news portal of ABC Deportes, in Spanish) and contains a lot of additional fairly outlandisch details.
Included was the statement: "When they inspected the bathrooms they found a network cable hidden in the stucco ceiling." Two months later, pictures surfaced, purporting to show the cables in the ceiling.
Here, for what they are worth, are two of the pictures (click to enlarge), which were sent to us by Danailov. The Exif information reveal that they were taken on October 1st 2006 at 13:20:00h and 13:20:12h camera time.
We were not especially surprised that the investigators found electrical cables above the ceiling of Kramnik's bathroom. You should check your own bathroom, which we assume has overhead lighting?!
And Vladimir? In 2007 he spoke to us and gave us his take:
First of all there was no “my bathroom” or “Topalov’s bathroom”. We were changing every game. So something like “Kramnik’s bathroom” simply didn’t exist. We were changing, we were switching rest rooms all the time. I have exactly the same right to accuse Topalov of cheating as he is accusing me, because we were both using this bathroom. I don’t know whether it was found in one bathroom or both… It was all rather ridiculous, when you know the circumstances. We were checked by a local police guy, plus arbiter, plus this guy from the Bulgarian secret service. He was checking my room plus my bathroom, before the game. Everything was checked with a very, very sensitive metal detector. Even the buttons on my jacket were signalling. I had to take off my shoes. It was really much tougher than at any airport.
But again, about this cable. We played in a government building, a building of the Government of Kalmykia. All ministers plus and including Ilyumzhinov, the offices of all ministers are there. It is full of cables, I don’t know, Internet, computer, TV, whatever. I would like Mr Danailov to explain – how it was possible to make use of this cable. First of all as far as I understand it was hidden behind the ceiling. It means that I – or Topalov – would have to use a special device to make a hole in the ceiling to take it out. Then if you don’t have a computer with you, it has no meaning. How can you use it? You need to bring a computer somehow. Another very interesting question is if you have a computer with you, why do you need a cable? This is all just nonsense.