Will Kramnik qualify for the 2016 Candidates'?

Well... what did I say?

MSC be like depressive now that mr. arrogant kramnik don't is invited and Giri is so far off. Hu-Hu-Hu.

Veselin Topalov commenting on the choice of location for the Candidates' Tournament and the wild card (from chess.com article):

“The choice of Moscow as a venue shows the incapacity of FIDE to find sponsors that are not Russian related. I don't think yet another top event in Russia will change the popularity of chess in that country, meanwhile a good chance to promote our sport in a different country or even a continent is missed once again. Levon is at the moment the strongest player that did not qualify by results, so his nomination is completely logical. I am waiting for the contract before taking my final decision if to play or not.”

Still not over his world championship loss to Kramnik, I see.

Apropos of nothing, I was surprised to discover Kramnik is 6'5" tall.

I dunno... maybe that is apropos to something. Topalov indicated in a 2006 interview that he still believed Kramnik cheated, and that he didn't say too much during the match because he felt intimidated. (That comment, btw, is what his complaints about having the Candidates' in Moscow reminded me of.) Well... maybe Kramnik's stature was part of what made him intimidating?

Anyone who's 6' 5" is imposing. Somehow I had never noticed a photo of Kramnik next to someone like this:

Most of the pictures I'd seen were those soulful, bespectacled close-ups where he looks like a scholarly Woody Allen.

Mayhap on your planet! 😊

Perchance on your planet. 😊

The only reason I posted twice above was because I was doing it on my phone and it didn't show that the response actually posted.

Now I see both did.  Odd.

Maybe the first time ever a player that many consider to have been best in the world during the year didn't qualify for the Candidates.

Does anyone seriously believe Kramnik was the best in the year? It's just that his purple patch came at the end of the year where he managed to break 2800. Players like Anand, Topalov and Nakamura got as high as 2815 at certain points this year.

"Does anyone seriously believe Kramnik was the best in the year?"

In the big Chessbase poll I think one of five considered him to have been better than Carlsen. Maybe partly affected by Carlsen's results during the year being so criticised at most chess sites, while Kramnik got the positive descriptions. The club competition where Kramnik gained his points was probably the least important event he played during the year though, and his results in the big events were bad, so that is maybe the reason the experts rank Kramnik below some of the players that won top events during the year while others maybe go by the current live rating list. But still of course surprising that it is so common to rank Kramnik ahead of Carlsen, the latter did after all score much better results throughout the year.