World candidates matches heat up!
When looking at the eight players who qualified for the candidates matches, many had chosen Levon Aronian as the odds-on favorite. With Magnus Carlsen having withdrawn, Aronian was hoping to make a big splash against Alexander Grischuk.
Surprisingly, Armenia’s Levon Aronian failed to advance.
The match went into tiebreaks and Grischuk completed the upset in the first round. Vladimir Kramnik squeaked by Teimour Radjabov while his old nemesis Veselin Topalov was ousted by U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky. Boris Gelfand moves on against upstart Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Kamsky will play Gelfand while Kramnik and Grischuk will do battle. The matches will resume on tomorrow, May 12th.
Official Site: https://kazan2011.fide.com/
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Very exciting game today in the Kamsky-Gelfand matchup in a Najdorf!
Near miss for Kramnik!
Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand will face each other for the right to play World Champion, Viswanathan Anand.
Daaim:
What is your opinion about the Candidate’s format? Is it fair?
Should Carlson not drop out? Who do think will win the WC match?
These subjects have been discussed so long ago, I hate to rehash them again. Not sure if “fair” is the right word since there are drawbacks to every format. I thought it was a mistake for Carlsen to drop out. Anand will retain his crown for another cycle. Between Gelfand and Grischuk, Gelfand is the better match.
Hey Daaim. Good to know your still keepin us informed about world Ches events. I’m in the Dominican Republic now. Only played a few games here.(skittles) Any Major Tournaments you know of? I don’t think it’s very big here. Keep in touch. Mel.
What’s going on Melvin? Long time.
Are you visiting or do are you living there for an extended time? Chess is not very widespread in the DR, but the are a few strong players. I’m not sure how to contact them.
Do you ever get back to Chicago?
I don’t understand why they cannot go back to the old system. There was nothing wrong with it.
You mean 24 games or the first to win six games with no draws counting?
Fourteen-move draw after a novelty by Gelfand! Grischuk shown here in total bewilderment. Photo by ChessBase.
Pathetic… another short draw.
I read that Grischuk was very surprised by Gelfand’s 9…b5! and it’s being called a novelty (I suppose because it hasn’t been played in a tourney) Out of curiosity, I set up the position through 9 g6 for my software and set it to its highest playing levels on 60 minute thinking. It claims to go up to a 3000 rating. 9…b5! is rarely played by my computer but it does play it. My software’s Frank Marshall personality emulator was the first to play it; so it seems to me that Grischuk shouldn’t be flabbergasted by it if he does a good amount of prep with a computer. Granted 9…Nd7, 9…a6, and even 9…c5 were by far more often played by my software.
correction: I meant 60 minute game clock! It takes around 5 minutes for my computer to find 9…b5! Also, I see 9…b6 at times.
another correction: I set up the position through 9g3 not 9g6 🙂
What software did you use?
Chessmaster ‘grandmaster edition’. Certainly not as good as Fritz.
Exciting game today! Gelfand holds off Grischuk’s active play and wins the final classical game of the match. Gelfand will face World Champion Viswanathan Anand for the World Championship. Final game below with analysis by Alejandro Ramirez.
Interesting comments by Alexander Grischuk on the future of chess…