Kramnik wins Tal Memorial Classical Chess

Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik emerged sole winner at the Tal Memorial Classical Chess Festival which ended its first event here.

Though all the games of the last round ended in draws, Kramnik finished on +4 and with this win he is likely to gain enough Elo points to stake claim to be world's top ranked player, dethroning current world no. 1 Viswanathan Anand when the new ELO List is released by FIDE in January next year.

Meanwhile, 64 players were fighting for six places in the World Blitz Championship which will be held from November 21 to 22. All the participants of the tournament together with Anand, Karpov, last year's champion Grischuk and runners up Svidler received personal invitations to play in the championship.

Four rounds were played yesterday in the qualification tournament which is an 11 double round. Final Standings:

Classical Event

1. Kramnik 6.5; 2. Shirov 5.0; 3-6. Gelfand, Carlsen, Jakovenko and Leko 4.5; 7-9. Ivanchuk, Kamsky and Mamedyarov 4.0; 10. Alekseev 3.5

Standings of World Blitz qualification round:

1. Kasimdzhanov 7.0; 2-3. Ponomariov and Rublevsky 6.5; 4-7. Bareev, Bacrot, Adams and Tkachiev 6.0; 8-11. Savchenko, Lahno, Movsesian and Fressinet 5.5; 12-16. Gritsak, Volkov, Dreev, Vallejo and Georgiev 5.0; 17-26. Nepomniachtchi, Nisipeanu, Amonatov, Moiseenko, Zvjaginsev, Deviatkin,Van Wely, Pelletier, Smirin and Krasenkow 4.5