Candidates Chess Matches Kazan 2011 R1.4: Kamsky eliminates Topalov, Gelfand eliminates Mamedyarov

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everyone,

As things go in chess - anything can happen. GM Gata Kamsky was leading with a win out of three games in the first round. Then disaster struck in the fourth game as he blundered in a crucial position.

That is just part of the story!

GM Kamsky got back into the game because Topalov returned the favour of letting the win slip away!

You will have to watch the games to see this absolute sitter.

But four draws on Sunday allowed GM Boris Gelfand to sail through into the semifinals after having already beaten Shakhriyar Mamedyarov once in the four games.


The two tie-breaks to be held on Monday will be:

• Vladimir Kramnik - Teimour Radjabov
• Levon Aronian - Alexander Grischuk

From May 3 to 27,  the FIDE Candidates matches are being held in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, with eight strong GMs competing to qualify as Challenger for the 2012 World Champion match. Time controls in the four regular games are 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. In case of a tie there will be four rapid chess games, and if the tie is still not broken then up to five two-game blitz matches 5'+3". Finally there may be a sudden-death final decider. The prize fund of the candidates is 500,000 Euros.

A match not to be forgotten. Sometimes you just wish both players could win.

Here are the fantastic games for you from the fourth set of games in the first round.

You can access the official website here.

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