Kramnik and Leko draw game 9 of champioship match

Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the reigning world chess champion, and his Hungarian challenger, Peter Leko, drew the ninth game of the their scheduled 14-game match for the world title today in the Swiss resort of Brissago.

The game lasted only sixteen moves. There were no dramatic moments during the game. It was the sixth drawn game of the match.

Leko leads the match, 5-4. The winner will be the first player to obtain 7½ points, with each victory counting as a full point and each draw as half a point. Kramnik won the opening game of the match on September 25, but has failed to win another game since; Leko won game 5 on October 2 and game 8 last Thursday. Kramnik will retain the title in the event the match ends in a 7-7 tie.

Game 10 will be played tomorrow at 3 pm Swiss time (6 am PDT).

Official Match Site.
Quality kibitzing at ChessGames.com.

after losing two games.
Especially #8
That was pretty cool!

In order to retain his title, Kramnik must win one of the next four games and draw the others. That is just to get into a postition to draw the match.

That is not as easy as it sounds. Leko, like Kramnik, is a cautious of player of great technical prowess. They are both better at avoiding loss than winning.

I thought the eighth game was cool. Of course, the Marshall Gambit is pretty cool.

Everybody, including me, missed the Qd3 blow.
After that it was over even though Leko was short on time.