Saturday, May 14, 2011

All Drawn At Semi-Finals FIDE Candidates

14 May 2011, Kuala Lumpur – At the FIDE Candidates Matches in Kazan, Russia, the tournament has reached the Semi-Finals stage. Four players are at Semi-Finals and they are Gata Kamsky, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Grischuk and Vladimir Kramnik.

TWIC reported that both Boris Gelfand and Vladimir Kramnik got serious opening advantages with white in the second round of the semi-finals of the FIDE World Chess Championship Candidates matches. Gelfand in particular had a winning position, at least according to his opponent Kamsky. But he didn't find the right way to exploit this and Kamsky then found his way to a draw. Kramnik got what looked like the kind of position he enjoys but in this case Grischuk found a very nice plan which kept the advantage within bounds and allowed him to hold the draw.

The tree illustrates the scenario of the players that have been eliminated at Quarterfinals and the standings at Semi-Finals stage.
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Results of Semi-Finals:
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Early favorite, Levon Aronian, was eliminated by Alexander Grischuk during the Quarterfinals with a 4.5-3.5 in favour of Grischuk.

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Here is one of  the winning games for Grischuk against Aronian during the quarterfinals.

[Event "Candidates Matches"] [Site "Kazan"] [Date "2011.05.09"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Grischuk, Alexander"] [Result "0-1"] [PlyCount "94"] [EventDate "2011.05.09"] 1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. O-O Nge7 7. Ne1 d6 8. Nc2 Be6 9. Ne3 O-O 10. d3 Qd7 11. Ned5 Bh3 12. Rb1 Bxg2 13. Kxg2 Rac8 14. e4 Nxd5 15. Nxd5 Ne7 16. Nc3 Nc6 17. Be3 f5 18. f3 f4 19. Bg1 h5 20. Nd5 Rf7 21. g4 hxg4 22. fxg4 Rcf8 23. Qf3 Bf6 24. Bf2 Rh7 25. Nxf6+ Rxf6 26. Rh1 g5 27. h3 b6 28. Rh2 Nd8 29. b3 Ne6 30. Kf1 b5 31. Kg2 a5 32. Rhh1 Rf8 33. Rhc1 Rb8 34. Rh1 b4 35. Rh2 a4 36. Kh1 Ra8 37. Bg1 axb3 38. Rxb3 Ra4 39. Rbb2 Ra3 40. Rbg2 Qa4 41. h4 Rc3 42. Qf1 Qa3 43. hxg5 Rc1 44. Qf2 Rxh2+ 45. Kxh2 Nxg5 46. Kh1 Qxd3 47. Qh4 Qh3+ 0-1


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After black played 47….Qh3+, white resigned.


 

Link:
- TWIC – commentaries and results.
- Official – website of Candidates Matches.
- Games

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