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  The 2007 FIDE Candidate Matches ...  
  in Elista, Kalmykia (Russia).  

Four players, (V. Kramnik, V. Anand, A. Morozevich, and P. Svidler); are already pre-qualified for the coming World Championship series in Mexico. This Candidates event is to decide which four players will join them for a DOUBLE-ROUND-ROBIN tournament.  [The TWIC report.]  

CB reports - [The Candidates arrive.]   [A big picture report.]   [Who are the favorites?]  

  The Candidates (16 players) ... round-by-round, plus links.

1. Round One (1.1):  Aronian and Grischuk win! (The CB report, games annotated.)

2. Round Two, (1.2):  Kamsky wins with Black {hurray!} ... Bareev beats J. Polgar. {boo!} (The CB report.)  

3. Round Three, (1.3):  Leko, Kamsky, Carlsen and Rublevsky all win. (The CB report.)  

4. Round Four, (1.4):  A black day in Elista? (The CB report.)  

5. Round Five, (1.5): Magnus Carlsen hits back ... and levels the score; Grischuk advances. (The CB report.)  

6. Round Six, (1.6):  Bareev, Rublevsky advance; Polgar and Ponomariov are out. 
   << (From the CB website.) Three players faced “must-win” games to stay alive in the event – only one of them managed it. Shirov beat Adams, to force the match into a playoff, but draws for Rublevsky and Bareev see them through to the second round, at the expense of Ponomariov and Polgar respectively. Magnus Carlsen pulled off a fine trick to hold Levon Aronian and force a playoff. >>  
   (The CB report ... for this round.) 

7. Tiebreaks ... for the first series of matches:  GM's Alexei Shirov, (defeated Michael Adams); Boris Gelfand, (passing Rustam Kasimdzhanov); and Lev Aronian, (defeating Magnus Carlsen); all won, and now proceed into the next round of the finals. (The CB report, the FIDE story on the tiebreak matches.)  

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  The Candidate (Finals - 8 players) 

1. Round One, (of the second round - which are the finals); (2.1):  Kamsky - Gelfand was a draw, Leko defeated Bareev with the White pieces ... after Bareev fell apart in time pressure, Grischuk won an amazing game (against GM Sergei Rublevsky) which featured a problem-like finish, (34.c3!!); and Lev Aronian defeated Shirov in a wild game that ended in a mutual time scramble ... Shirov Resigned rather than see his King get mated. (The CB report, the CC report, the FIDE report. Commentary and analysis by GM M. Marin. Mark Crowther & IM Malcolm Pein's perspective on this round.)  

2. Round Two, (2.2):  All four games were drawn, however, at least two of the games were exciting. (The CB report, the CC/TWIC story.)  (GM M. Marin comments on this round. Mark Crowther & IM Malcolm Pein's perspective on this round.)  

3. Round Three, (2.3):  08.06.2007 – In this round of the Finals, Peter Leko scored another fine win against GM Evgeny Bareev. Boris Gelfand also won - but with the black pieces ... against the American, GM Gata Kamsky. Levon Aronian came extremely close to victory over Alexei Shirov, but then badly misplayed the ending and allowed his creative opponent to escape with a draw. Grischuk and Rublevsky drew, and In the computer competition, Junior beat Fritz ... in a theoretically interesting contest. (The CB report, GM M. Marin looks at the games. Mark Crowther & IM Malcolm Pein's perspective on this round.) 

4. Round Four, (2.4):  June 10th, 2007.  Shirov and Aronian drew. (The actual game was 84 moves long. It was an incredible tussle, White won a Pawn, but had a semi-bad Bishop. Later, GM A. Shirov won another pawn, but his Rook was frozen in place. Then it appeared that Lev Aronian had some winning chances, as his f-Pawn was sneaking through. However, Shirov got to sack his Bishop, and had the better side of a draw ... in the final position.) GM's E. Bareev and Peter Leko drew, but it was far from being a quick draw. (A lot of subtle maneuvers took place, in the end, Leko had to force a draw to prevent the advance of White's dangerous passed Pawn.) GM Sergei Rublevsky defeated GM Alexander Grischuk in a wonderful game. (In a Scotch, White outplayed Black, won a few pawns, and then sealed the point with some wonderful technique in a rather difficult R+P endgame.) GM's Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky drew a strange affair in 54 total moves. (Gelfand appeared to have completely outplayed the American GM. But then Kamsky sacrificed an exchange ... and seemed to hold the position with no great difficulties.) All-in-all, it was an interesting round. (The CB report, GM M. Marin looks at the games. The LCC/TWIC report ... in issue # 657.) 

5. Round Five, (2.5):  June 11th, 2007.  Peter Leko was the first to qualify, with a draw against an apparently somewhat dejected Evgeny Bareev. Boris Gelfand pulled off a nice win, (with the Black pieces, no less); against Gata Kamsky ... to also qualify for the world championships in Mexico. GM's Lev Aronian and Alexei Shirov drew, so now the latter must win tomorrow, in order to stay in the race. GM's Alexander Grischuk and Sergei Rublevsky are tied at  2.5:2.5  points apiece. (The CB report.)  

6. Round Six, (2.6): A. Shirov and L. Aronian drew ... as did S. Rublevsky and A. Grischuk. This means that GM's Lev Aronian, Peter Leko and Boris Gelfand have all qualified for the W.C.S. in Mexico, and that Rublevsky and Grischuk have to play a four-game series of rapid games ... to determine which player advances. (Read the full CB report, which also includes pictures and some brief analysis.) 

7. Candidates Finals ... ... ... TIEBEAKS!:  GM Alexander Grischuk had the "unlucky" Black pieces in the first and third game of the tiebreak match. However, he oddly won both games with the Black pieces to advance to the W.C.S. tournament in Mexico. I studied the games - in some detail for around 2-3 hours, Grischuk played almost perfect chess. (Its my understanding that the fourth game was not played, as it became a moot point - and was unnecessary. Read the ChessBase report, which also has many pictures ... and commentary and analysis by GM M. Marin. The LCC/TWIC report.) 

   Wrap-up   

Wednesday; June 13th, 2007: OK, I guess the Candidate Matches are now over.  

The following four players were already qualified for the World Championship tournament in Mexico City: GM's Vladimir Kramnik, (Russia); Viswanathan Anand, (India); Peter Svidler (Russia) and Alexander Morozevich. (Also Russia.) They are now joined by GM's Peter Leko, (Hungary); Boris Gelfand, (Israel); Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Alexander Grischuk (Also Russia, duh!) ... to make up an eight player field. 

Of course, this is not one-hundred per cent certain, I think it is still possible that a last minute decision could be made to include the powerful Bulgarian GM {and former FIDE World Champion}; Veselin Topalov. While this might seem like pure speculation at this point, there is a strong {grass roots?} movement to try and have Topalov included in this tournament. In my opinion, this is only fair, and would mean that we would have the best players in the world - who are also playing very well at the moment - to vie for the title of (chess) World Champion. 

CG site(s) - replay the GM games

1. Levon Aronian versus Magnus Carlsen.  (3-3 Aronian wins through, after winning the tiebreaks.) 

2. Judit Polgar versus Evgeny Bareev.  (Bareev advances, 3.5 to 2.5.) 

3. Alexei Shirov versus Michael Adams.  (3-3 Shirov wins the tiebreaks, after drawing a tight match.) 

4. Ruslan Ponomariov versus Sergei Rublevsky.  (An upset! Rublevsky advances. 3.5 - 2.5) 

5. Boris Gelfand versus Rustam Kasimdzhanov.  (3-3 Gelfand goes through to the next round - via TB.) 

6. Alexander Grischuk versus Vladimir Malakhov.  (Grischuk wins to get by Malakhov. 3.5 - 1.5) 

7. Etienne Bacrot versus Gata Kamsky. (Kamsky advances, read the USCF report. Score: 3.5 - to 0.5.)  

8. Peter Leko versus Mikhail Gurevich.  (Leko trounces Gurevich, score 3.5 to 0.5.)  

9. Alexander Grischuk versus Sergei Rublevsky.  (3-3 Grischuk wins, but only in the tiebreaks.) 

10. Boris Gelfand versus Gata Kamsky.  (Gelfand wins, by the score of 3.5 to 1.5.)  

11. Evgeny Bareev versus Peter Leko.  (Leko wins, by the score of 3.5 to 1.5.) 

12. Lev Aronian versus Alexei Shirov.  (Aronian wins, but only by one point; 3.5 to 2.5.)  

•   -  Search Google  for more on the FIDE Candidate Matches, in Elista. 

•   - Kamsky defeats Bacrot and advances, read the USCF report.  

  All ChessBase articles ... on the 2007 FIDE Candidates tournament.  

   [ The official website - for this event.]     [ For the "Chess Games" links, see just above.]  
   [ The CC/TWIC news coverage. The final TWIC report. ]   [ A few FIDE links: Here, or here. ]  
   [ An Impala blog on the FIDE Candidate Matches. ]   

   [ I carefully annotate one of the games from the Aronian - Carlsen "slug-of-war." ]  

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     This page was created on: June 1st, 2007.     This page was last updated on:  Saturday, July 14, 2012 02:16 AM .