Gelfand and Grischuk draw second game Candidates final
Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk drew their second game of the Candidates final in Kazan, Russia. After a spectacular opening phase, the players reached and ending with bishop, knight and rook for Grischuk and two rooks for Gelfand. At move 58 the point was split.General info
The Candidates matches take place May 3-27 in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. Levon Aronian (Armenia), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) were knocked out in the quarter-finals. In the semis, Alexander Grischuk (Russia) won against Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Boris Gelfand beat Gata Kamsky (USA). The quarter-finals and semi-finals consisted of four classical games and tie-breaks; there are six classical games in the final. The winner qualifies for a World Title match against Vishy Anand next year. More info here; tie-break rules here.Final, game 2
In the Korston hotel in Kazan, Russia the final of the FIDE Candidates matches is quickly turning into a fierce battle. The matadors, Alexander Grischuk of Russia and Boris Gelfand of Israel, have taken the bull by the horns, and created a true masterpiece on the second day - a classic fight between material and initiative, play and counterplay, attack and defence.The game exploded as early as move nine, when Gelfand started some wild complications with a new move. Grischuk responded very quickly, making clear that his team had looked at the idea during the preparation. Just a few moves later it turned out that Gelfand had sacrificed a piece for a pawn - risky business during a Candidates final!?White's initiative and bishop pair meant strong compensation, and Black quickly had to return an exchange. Eventually a complicated ending arose with bishop, knight and rook for Grischuk against two rooks for Gelfand, plus a number of pawns for both sides. Gelfand was under pressure.In timetrouble, however, Grischuk didn't play the strongest moves and at move 40 the position was equal. Then, on move 41, it was Gelfand who played inaccurately, giving his opponent new hopes to score a full point. However, it was the last mistake Gelfand would make and at move 58 the Israeli GM had saved the half point. The score is 1-1 and four more classical games are scheduled; On Saturday game 3 is played and Sunday is a rest day.Gelfand-Grischuk Candidates final, g2 (Kazan) 2011 Game viewer by ChessTempoImages FIDE | Russian Chess Federation
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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