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The G-spot: Grischuk and Gelfand in the Finals of the Candidates Matches
Written by Administrator
Monday, 16 May 2011
While in the ¼-finals only two games out of 16 were decisive, in the ½-finals all the 8 games were drawn. In fact, many of the encounters were quite interesting and fighting, but the quality of the play was so high that neither side prevailed.
Kamsky vs Gelfand
The rapid tie-breaks between Gelfand and Kamsky proved once again the banal saying that chess is 99% tactics. First Boris (Black) missed his chance to capitalize on his opponents misstep:
In another game Gelfand blundered terribly with a3??, and Kamsky took advantage of this mistake and scored with Black:
Just like in the classical part, Vladimir has been putting pressure on Alexander in the Kramnik-Grischuk rapid match, but incredible defensive skills of the former and his steel nerves allowed Grischuk to keep escaping like Houdini and draw game after game. Also, Kramnik seemed to be short on luck (or not up to the challenge) in some positions where extremely subtle play was called for:
White could pose serious problems for Black in Alexanders severe time trouble by playing Rd1. Instead, Kramnik went a4 and missed the d5 break which allowed Alexander simplify the game and draw a rook vs rook+pawn endgame.
Kramnik vs Grischuk
Unbelievably, Alexander Grischuk offered a draw with White on move 8 (!) in the last rapid game. As the commentators joked, Grischuks main idea is to survive until Armageddon and draw with Black. Meanwhile, Kamsky (White) missed a cheap tactical shot in the following position:
Later Gelfand managed to outplay Kamsky by creating aggressive connected passers in the center and has also reached blitz tie-breaks.
The blitz play-off turned out to be even more dramatic. Gelfand and Grischuk (two Gs) both won win Black against, correspondingly, Kamsky and Kramnik (two Ks). In the second game Kramnik was fighting rather desperately, but Grischuk obtained a commanding position and traded into a rook+3 pawns vs rook+3 pawns endgame to proceed into the Final. Gelfand was victorious in the second game to defeat Kamsky.
Boris Gelfand & Alexander Grischuk with Boris Kutin at the press conference
The press conference was also a delight to hear. For instance, Grischuk mentioned that "in Ancient Greece the Olympiads were held to determine the best athlete. And now the public declares - for example - that Aronian is the best, and if he doesn't win, then the system is flawed". Gelfand was asked if he feels the weight of his age and answered that Geller won the USSR Chess Championship & Korchnoi played in the WC Matches at an older age. He also noted that the media simply loves young prodigies (like So and Giri) much more since they are tired of writing about the old guys like himself and Ivanchuk. That makes some fans believe that only the young players understand chess, while the more experienced have lost their might.
