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Candidates Matches Kazan


chester United 3-1. Later the hard work—preparation for a


2012 world title match against Anand— will begin. “The World Championship will be played by chess players who’ve already been playing for 20 years,” said Gelfand. “That’s a good signal to the young that if they don’t achieve success in a year or two life isn’t over; you have to keep fighting and success might come at any moment.”


Semifinals: Gelfand versus Kamsky Boris Gelfand fell over the line against


FIDE originally announced that


the Candidates matches would be held in Baku, with the Azeri Feder- ation placing 150,000 Euros in the FIDE bank account—thereby also guaranteeing Azerbaijan a wild card entry among the eight Candidates— Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Immediately Aronian, a represen-


tative of Armenia, a country still feuding with Azerbaijan over the ter- ritory of Nagorno-Karabakh, objected strongly. To Azerbaijan's dismay, FIDE then


starting suggesting that Aronian’s matches—up to half the event— could be played elsewhere. As the 2010 FIDE election


approached and the Russian Feder- ation (controversially) committed their bid to Iljumzhinov, FIDE suddenly announced that the complete set of matches would move to Kazan. The Azeri Chess Federation


objected, but made their priorities clear, saying it’s more important for us that we have an Azeri nominee than that we hold the Candidates matches themselves. Topalov also objected, declaring


that he would never agree to play Kramnik on Russian soil again. However the Candidates matches


moved to the capital of Tatarstan with a 420,000 Euro prize fund and the only player missing was Carlsen, who in late 2010 became fed up with FIDE’s delays and changes and stepped out. The Candidates matches in Kazan


ran well, with excellent video cover- age, though general publicity was sorely lacking so the matches were almost invisible to the general media. Soon after the matches ended


Kazan took on an even more difficult task, hosting long-delayed peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia!


Gata Kamsky, with the American at one stage only a single good move away from match victory. “What can I say?” a relieved Gelfand


related at the post-match press confer- ence. “The quality of the [tiebreak] games in our match was very low, but luck was


-+rvl-trk+ +p+-+pzpp p+qzpl+-+ +-+Nzp-+- -+P+P+-+ +P+-+N+- -zP-+QzPPzP +-tRR+-mK-


After 18. c4


20. Rxd5 Qxd5! 21. cxd5 Rxc1+ 22. Ne1 Ba5 when White must resign. Then Gelfand overlooked a clever trick


—and this time Kamsky didn't.


I’ve got a [law] degree and simply need to pass an exam on practical law. But it’s entirely possible that’s not what I’ll do. I’ve got lots of other ideas. I want, for example, to pass on my chess experience to children, to open a school.


on my side. Perhaps that’s the worst match I’ve played in tiebreaks. The main thing was to get through and I managed, with an enormous amount of luck, to do that.” As in the Grischuk-Kramnik match,


the four regulation games ended as draws, though not through want of trying. In the rapid tiebreakers, it was Gelfand who missed a chance to draw first blood:


Missed chance GM Gata Kamsky (FIDE 2732) GM Boris Gelfand (FIDE 2733) Kazan Candidates Matches, 05.16.2011


(see diagram top of next column) Here Gelfand played the natural 18. ... f5


and after 19. exf5 played the natural recap- ture 19. ... Bxf5? after which the game was drawn on move 32. A little more reflection and Gelfand would have seen 19. ... Bxd5!


22 Chess Life — August 2011


Missed trick GM Boris Gelfand (FIDE 2733) GM Gata Kamsky (FIDE 2732) Kazan Candidates Matches, 05.16.2011


-+r+qtrk+ +p+n+pvlp -+l+p+p+


pz -zp-+-vL- -sn-+-+-+ +QsNP+NzP- PzP-+PzPLzP +-tRR+-mK-


After 15. ... Qe8 A roughly equal position turned into a


catastrophe for Gelfand after 16. a3? c4! 17. Qxc4. 17. dxc4 Nc5 wins the queen, who no longer has the a3-square available.


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