chess against the world champion

I received a great surprise email last night: I’m going to play chess against Vladimir Kramnik, the World Champion.

Tomorrow night at 6pm as part of an internet simultaneous display. Vladimir will be sat in Paris; I’ll be one of 8 opponents scattered around the world. Thanks to the guys at the spanish site ajedrez21.com for the opportunity to play (you can get it in English as well on chess21.com).

Unbelievable!

Unfortunately, Kramnik has the White pieces. With White, I’d have been reasonably confident of reaching a competitive middlegame, but with Black even that will be difficult. Kramnik’s opening knowledge is phenomenal, and he’s famously strong against one of my favourite Black openings (the King’s Indian Defence). We’ll see!

For the aficionados reading… Kramnik gets 60 mins + 30 secs per move, I get 20 mins + 30 secs.