Candidates Matches 3rd - 27th May 2011

[Ben Purton]

Kramnik playing like a man who already thinking about his "why he lost" Interview

[Ben Purton]

I mean , Kramnik here is asking to be crushed by Grischuk.

[Ben Purton]

Where as Kamsky played the dutch, you know a real go for the win V d4 type stuff here with f4 just now

[Ben Purton]

Major problem here is the g6 square is really weak and obviously white has draw/pep check odds which restricts some lines for Black

[Ben Purton]

OK Grischuk is through

[Eoin Devane]

And Gelfand now as well.

[Eoin Devane]

Gelfand actually managed to win with white!

[LozCooper]

So Gelfand blundered his queen and then won three games in a row

[James Byrne]

...

[LozCooper]

I predict Grischuk to beat Gelfand in the final and to topple Anand next year, this guy has fighting spirit like I've never seen before, Go Grischuk!!

The real test will come if he needs to win a standard or rapid play game as the matches will get longer now but he is very resourceful and certainly not a sterotype elite player (if there is such a thing)

[Eoin Devane]

Gelfand admitted in the press conference that "it was a tie-break full of mistakes from both sides ... normally the quality in tie-breaks is pretty high, I don't know what happened today".

[Mick Norris]

The Kramnik v Grishcuk games have been fantastic, but Grischuk v Kramink an absolute disgrace. I suppose that Grischuk fears that if he has to keep on having to save bad positions with twenty seconds on his clock, without respite, then he might just spontaneously combust.

Well, it worked for him, twice now with Aronian and Kramnik, in terms of short draws with white

Will he do the same against Gelfand? Given there won't be any other games to watch, it might be a short day once or twice

Gelfand to win in the 6 classical games, I guess, but if it goes to tie-breaks then Grischuk to win

I think Gelfand is the oldest of the 8 candidates, so I won't be the only one supporting him for that reason

[Michael Jones]

Is it just me, or is this turning into the World Blitz Championship? Grischuk has reached the final without winning a full length game, while Aronian, Radjabov, Kramnik and Kamsky have all been eliminated without losing one...

[LozCooper]

Is it just me, or is this turning into the World Blitz Championship? Grischuk has reached the final without winning a full length game, while Aronian, Radjabov, Kramnik and Kamsky have all been eliminated without losing one...

Certainly blitz & rapid. We've had 24 long play games so far and I believe they've produced 2 decisive results. Then the first game to be decided in the rapidplay today was due to Gelfand blundering. I don't blame the players who believe in their blitz ability to try and steer the matches towards it but it's yet to convince me that this is the format that should be used in future years.

[Matthew Peat]

I'm rooting for Gelfand.

Grischuk has (not without a lot of skill) unashamedly played for the blitz eliminators but that won't really help him in a 12 match game with Anand, which I suspect would be rather one-sided.