Good afternoon everybody!

   I know it's a little bit early to be talking about and discussing this, since we still have the U.S. Championships in April to go through yet, but maybe we can start some interesting discussion and get some thoughts moving around the Chess.com Community and get peoples ideas on what they think will take place in Kazan in May 3rd-27th of this year.

   As most of you know, former #1 rated player Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the current World Championship Cycle in a letter to FIDE only to be replaced by Alexander Grischuk and Veselin Topalov is making a big stink about playing Russian Candidates like Kramnik on Russian soil and there were rumors about him even withdrawing from the event or walking out of the final match if he happens to face Kramnik to get to Anand in the early part of 2012.

   Below are the pairings for Round 1 of the tournament and each match will consist of 4 games. The time control will be 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then fifteen minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move 61. This does not include potential tiebreaks, which if not required, would allow a third rest day. The semifinals are also to last four games, and the finals will be six games

Topalov (BUL) - Kamsky (USA)
Kramnik (RUS) - Radjabov (AZE)
Aronian (ARM) - Grischuk (RUS)
Gelfand (ISR) - Mamedyarov (AZE)

The drawing of lots for colors for all the rounds will be conducted during the opening ceremony of the event. The winner of the Candidates Matches 2011 will qualify to challenge the World Champion GM Vishy Anand in a 12-game match during the first half of 2012.

   Now let's take a look at the Candidates:

Veselin Topalov: Bulgaria

A former World Chess Champion after losing the title to Kramnik in 2006, Topalov was defeated in 2010 by current World Champion Vishy Anand and has almost disappeared from the tournament scene since and is rumored to be flirting with retirement if he doesn't win in Kazan. He is currently ranked #7 on the March FIDE list with a 2775 Elo. I would enjoy another Anand/Topalov match but the world's eyes are on a different player.

Gata Kamsky: USA

Current and reigning 2010 U.S. Champion, Gata Kamsky was defeated by Topalov for the right to face Anand. In August 2010, Kamsky won clear first at the World Rapid Chess Championship (the Mainz Chess Classic), a Rapid Chess tournament with an astounding 10.0/11, defeating world #5 ranked and defending champion Levon Aronian, 2004 FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Sergey Karjakin en route to the title ahead of Grischuk, Shirov and several other strong Grandmasters. Kamsky has been a 'bride's maid" for a while but never actually became World Champion. He faced Anatoly Karpov in '96 in a 20 game match but lost 10.5-7.5. This would be the time to get some revenge on Topalov for the previous Cycle's eviction.

Vladimir Kramnik: RUS

This is my pick, next to Levon Aronian, who the whole world is going to be watching in this event. Another former World Champion, Kramnik is seeking out another Championship to add to his already great career. Kramnik began 2010 at the Corus chess tournament in the Netherlands, during which he defeated new world number-one Carlsen with the Black pieces in their head-to-head encounter, ending Carlsen's 36-match unbeaten streak. A late loss to Viswanathan Anand knocked him out of first place, and Kramnik finished with 8/13, tying for second place with Alexei Shirov behind Carlsen's 8½ points. In May 2010 it was revealed that Kramnik had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½-5½ to retain the title. Can this be Kramnik's last shot at chess stardom?

Teimour Radjabov: AZE

Teimour Radjabov placed second in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. Radjabov is the youngest player ever to make the FIDE Top 100 Players list, therefore he is also established himself as a chess prodigy. His rating of 2599 in January 2002 ranked 93rd in the world while he was still 14 years old. Radjabov's name is often mentioned in conjunction with that of former world champion Garry Kasparov. Both are from Baku, Azerbaijan and both men have Jewish fathers.^[17] Radjabov's lifetime score against Kasparov at standard time controls is one win, three draws and no losses. Could Radjabov be the dark horse in this event, hanging back in the shadows ready to strike?

Levon Aronian: ARM

As I've already mentioned, everyone will be watching Aronian, the winner of the last Amber tournament just a short time ago in Monaco, scoring a full point ahead of 2nd place Magnus Carlsen and he is also the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. In November 2010, he finished with a share of first at the Tal Memorial. Following this tournament, he competed in the World Blitz Championship in Moscow, where he scored 24.5/38 to win the title ahead of Teimour Radjabov and defending champion Magnus Carlsen; Aronian clinched the title with a round to spare.In January 2011, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Magnus Carlsen in the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Next to Kramnik, this is the guy I am pulling for to win Kazan and defeat Anand.

Alexander Grischuk: RUS

Along with being a top-level professional, Grischuk is also known as one of the best blitz chess players in the world, having once held the record for highest rating achieved on the Internet Chess Club. In 2006 he won the World Blitz Championship in Rishon Lezion, Israel with 10.5 points out of 15 games, winning 10 games. Grischuk was the champion of Linares 2009, winning on tie-break over Vassily Ivanchuk because he had more wins. In 2010, he finished second in Linares to Veselin Topalov. Grischuk finished third in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2010, which qualified him as the first alternate for the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2012 cycle. Upon the withdrawal of world #2 Magnus Carlsen from the candidates tournament, Grischuk was appointed to take his place. I personally think he looks a lot like David Pruess when you look at them both side to side. Just a thought. But Grischuk can cement himself in chess lore winning this tournament.

Boris Gelfand: ISR

Undoubtedly Israel's best and strongest chess player. In the Chess World Cup 2009, Gelfand was the top seed, and defeated Judit Polgár, reigning World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Jakovenko, and Sergey Karjakin to reach the final. He then faced former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov for the championship, and won the match 7-5 in a playoff. As winner of the Chess World Cup 2009, Gelfand will be automatically seeded into the World Chess Championship 2011 Candidates Tournament. Gelfand appeared in a total of nine Chess Olympiads, representing Soviet Union once, Belarus twice, and Israel six times.In 1990, he won the team gold medal playing board 2 for Soviet Union. In 2008, he won the team silver medal and also individual silver medal playing board 1 for Israel. In 2010, he won the team bronze medal playing board 1 for Israel. Gelfand is notable as a 1.d4 opener as White and as a specialist in the Najdorf Sicilian, Petroff Defense, Slav Defense and King's Indian Defense as Black, and is noted for his strong positional awareness. Look out Kazan, Boris is coming to town!

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: AZE

Mamedyarov attained joint first place in Aeroflot Open in Moscow in February 2006, with a score of 6½/9. In October 2006, he won the closed Essent Chess Tournament in Hoogeveen with 4½ of six games, beating Judit Polgár on Sonneborn-Berger. In the Chess World Cup 2007 Mamedyarov advanced to the third round where he was knocked out by Ivan Cheparinov. He also become best individual player at the World Team Chess Championships 2009.In 2010, he tied for first place with Vladimir Kramnik and Gata Kamsky in the President's Cup in Baku. Followed by joint win in the Mikhail Tal Memorial. On the September 2010 FIDE rating list he was ranked number nine in the world with an Elo rating of 2756. His style often known for the experiments in the openings, who also uses various tactical techniques like the Alekhine Defence and the Budapest Gambit. He played for Azerbaijan in the Chess Olympiads of 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010. In 2009, he won the team gold medal for Azerbaijan in European Team Chess Championship, having won bronze medal in 2007.

   So that's a look at all 8 competitors and I look forward to this event with such excitement and eager anticipation. Everybody will have their favorites so let's get some discussion going on about this.

Good job ChessMarkstheSpot! 

I'm Levons fan (as you can conclude from my nationality). Leva was world rapid chess, world flitz chess and Fischer random chess champion and I hope classical chess will be next. Waiting for candidates with impatience.

"[Topalov] is rumored to be flirting with retirement if he doesn't win in Kazan."

I'm pretty sure this is not true, any sources please?

  Philidor - after losing to Anand in 2010 at the site of the World Championship, Topalov wasn't accepting invites to new tournaments but was playing in tourneys that he already made committments to even before the WCC match took place. I haven't seen him much at all in events since then. Danny and David even did a topic about this on Pardon our Blunders about a couple of months ago where they said he "basically retired." Even his WIkipedia entry doesn't have any results for him since the Sofia match. To me, and even to Danny more specifically, that looks like he is opting for retirement.

   Now whether it will actually happen, I don't know, but not playing in any major tourneys or events since then looks like he's winding down to me. 

   -Mark

  True Fezzik that's right, and his gameplay showed that he is not at a top level since not playing that much seemingly has affected him. He's trying to get the cobwebs off of his play before May in Kazan. Yes it was a totally different type of event in Amber than it will be in the Candidates matches, but I do not think he is ready for such a tourney of this proportion after taking all of this time off.

  -Mark

Please don't get me wrong, but that's a very bad inference, in my opinion, he was just relatively inactive for a long while. I don't see him retiring in the next 10 years. So there are no "rumors" actually. There's just bad inference. You just made it up yourself.