World Cup Final Goes To Tie-Breaks

The final match of the 2009 World Cup will go to rapid tie-breaks after the players remained deadlocked after the last of the four long time-control games.

The tiebreaks and closing ceremony will take place tomorrow.  The winner pockets $96,000 compared to a mere(!) $64,000 for the runner-up.  That's a difference of $32,000 resting on a few rapid games of chess.  The winner will also qualify for the candidates event for the next World Championship cycle.

As usual, the tie-breaks start with a four-game rapid match.  If the players are still all square, then they move on to pairs of blitz games.  There can be up to five pairs of blitz games, but if the scores are still level then there is a final sudden-death game.

Rapid games are played at 25 mins/game plus 10 second increments.  Blitz games are played at 5 mins/game plus 3 second increments.  The first game starts at 15:00 local time.

Good luck to both players.  The stakes are high and so is the tension.  May the best man win!

Ponomariov and Gelfand will need blitz games to separate them (pic from official site)