Hail the Candidates Champ: Boris Gelfand!!

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you must already know that Boris Gelfand won the Candidates Matches and therefore the right to challenge WCC Anand in 2012.

Personally, I'm excited that Gelfand was able to break the hegemony which Kramnik and Topalov had on these tournaments and that we are going to see a new challenger face Anand. I think chess fans around the world will be treated to high level and very refreshing chess during the 2012 World Chess Championship. I think we could have expected similar level of play if Aronian or Radjabov had made it to the final....but Gelfand earned the right to be at the final dance.

Who will win the WCC in 2012 its another story, I still think Anand will pull it off once again....but I expect fireworks at the board. As a chss fan...what are you expecting from this match?

But didn't Gelfand take the spot that would have been occupied by Mag Max?  So, in effect, this is Carlsen's spot playing for the title; it's just that Boris is sitting in it.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that Boris may be a little tougher here than most people think.  I don't think that Anand will walk all over him; I think Boris has more fight in him than that.  I think that this is going to be a good match--whether in Russia, India, or whatever.

I expect that Anand will win fairly easily without pushing hard once he has the lead, maybe +2 -0 =9. Gelfand hasn't beaten Anand since 1993 and I just don't think he's good enough to be a real threat in a match.

Too early to judge the result.

Anand has been a much better player than Gelfand for almost 20 years and that's probably more important than results the players have while preparing for the match. So I say +2 unless Anand for some reason will press for more.

How about a simultaneous Carlsen-Nakamura Match for the Future World Chess Championship in St Louis? That might be more interesting than Anand-Gelfand.

On paper Gelfand should be the least intimidating challenger in a very long time. Topalov and Kramnik had plus scores against Anand, won dozens of top tournaments, had been #1 on the rating list, etc etc. Leko won all the top tournaments and had a plus against Kramnik, while Kramnik was #2 in 2000 and already had won lots of top events.

Short had beaten Kasparov a couple of times in the second half of the 1980s and several times in rapid as well, while Gelfand is 1-18 against Anand the last 18 years, the one win coming in rapid during Anand's preparations for the match against Kramnik. 

Short had just beaten Karpov clearly in a Candidates match, something only Kasparov had managed to do and often even he didn't manage to do that. He also won all his other Candidates matches, one of them against Gelfand (4-2 in wins, when the latter was top 5).

Short had also won several top tournaments the years before the match, like Amsterdam 1991 ahead of both Kasparov and Karpov. He also had consecutive titles in Wijk. Gelfand has never won a top tournament of that sort but finished last in his latest starts in Linares and Wijk (as well as Dortmund if not for Naiditsch).

So can anyone come up with a challenger that looks less scary than Gelfand? Bogo in 1934 maybe? But Bogo is top 5 at Chessmetrics when the match was played and he had won many strong tournaments the previous decade, and did win numerous games against Alekhine (13 just in 1929-43). So who is the latest challenger that should be ranked behind Gelfand, any suggestions?

No, the spot vacated by Carlsen was filled by Grischuk, not Gelfand. 

Is this the first world chaqmpionship ever in which the WC is younger than the challenger ? ( discounting all the times Botvinnik won his rematches due to the rematch clause... )  

 sorry about that, Is still the World Chess Championship with or without Carlsen.

You think this why ?  Because Carlsen's rating is less than 10 points higher than Anand's ? Anand has a plus record against Carlsen in classic games. Gelfand showed a handful of rating points more or less doesnt matter a lot at the elite level by winning the candidates even though he was one of the lower rated players in the candidates. 

NM Reb

It was Grischuk who filled Carlsen's spot?  Well, shoot that idea all to pieces.    But thanks for the correction.

Gelfand showed what was already well known, that is that the best players rarely win knockouts (see Khalifman, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov). It's not a format to decide who one of the two candidates for best player in the world is.

Yes, Grischuk replaced Carlsen . Gelfand qualified by winning the world cup I believe. 

I agree. I also didnt like the format used in this candidates but what can we do ? 

 shoot the FIDE.

Carlsen has shown he is a great tournament player . He has not shown (yet) that he is a great match player. To be world champion you must be a great match player too. Geller was a great tournament player but failed in matches. Geller had a plus record against Spassky in tournaments but in 2 candidates matches against Spassky failed to win even one game . Its possible Carlsen may turn out to be another Geller ?  Until he plays serious matches against some of his elite peers we won't know.