(BigKhat) wrote in message . com...
Who is Kasimdzhanov? And how many of you know Khalifman before he
became World Champion?

We only get a steady diet of Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, + the other
round robin GMs (a few of which lost when playing Kasimdzhanov).
These RR GMs are soft. In most games they only play a few moves and
take quick draws. It is not surprising to me that an unknown with
more fire in his belly wins because these softies aren't used to
playing against quality players who want to fight.



I think playing in these KOs is really different than playing
those RR. With RRs its easier to prepare for your opponents,
whereas with KOs who your opponents will always be unpredictable.
Thats the reason why some unknowns will always have good chances of
winning cuz guys like kramnik, kasparov, topalov, adams whoever
won't know what to expect. Plus with the system at Tripoli,
basically one has to be good not only at the longer time controls
but can blitz well too. This favors the younger guys who can play
under the pressure of short time controls. So really the tourny
is kind of a blitz tourny among the strongest players. Personally
I don't understand why they can't say lengthen the number of games
played as you advance further up and eliminte these blitz games
altogether. However one advantage of these KOs is that all games
are very hard fought. You don't get these early draw offers you
see at Linares, so they can go and relax and do whatever. Prior
to this event Kasim has won very few tournys, it'll be interesting
to see how he'll do in the future or will he be just another Ponomariov?