Elista Candidates, Round 1, Tiebreaks
Dear FIDE,
When it comes to the candidates and the world championship, keep matches and eliminate tournaments, please!
Regards,
DM
We definitely got our money's worth out of round 1, which concluded a little while ago with Aronian finally slaying Carlsen (the Norwegian Nuisance)! The first round of tiebreakers were indecisive: Aronian won the first game, drew the next two, but blew an easy draw in game four with 82...Qc1+?? (82...Qe4, Qg2, Qa8, Qg1 and Qe1 all drew. But more to the point, a move like 81...Qg6 would have kept him out of all trouble in the first place. Still, Carlsen deserves a lot of credit for keeping what would normally be a dead drawn endgame alive as long as he did.) So it was on to glorified blitz games: 5' + 10". Aronian won the first with White, to take the lead for the fourth time in the match, and this time it was enough. Carlsen tried to create a messy position in the next game, but Aronian handled the complications and won that one, too.
Aronian will have a couple of days off to recover before playing Shirov, who routed Adams in their rapid playoff. (Shirov won the first two games and drew the third.) I don't remember Adams as a nervy player, but he completely collapsed in this match.
The third of our tiebreak matches, Gelfand-Kasimdzhanov, had the result I originally predicted, but certainly not by the expected route: Gelfand won the tiebreak 2.5-.5, winning both games with the black pieces. It's not that Gelfand is a slouch in rapid; he's not. But Kasimdzhanov's rapid results this decade have been world championship quality, so it's a mild surprise.
Match Results:
Aronian - Carlsen 7-5
Shirov - Adams 5.5-3.5
Leko - Gurevich 3.5-.5
Bareev - Polgar 3.5-2.5
Rublevsky - Ponomariov 3.5-2.5
Grischuk - Malakhov 3.5-1.5
Gelfand - Kasimdzhanov 5.5-3.5
Kamsky - Bacrot 3.5-.5
So, how did Monostradamus do? Reasonably well, but nothing to brag about. I was right about Aronian, Leko, Grischuk, Gelfand and Kamsky; and I was wrong about Shirov, Bareev, and Rublevsky. I did think the Shirov match was pretty much a pick-'em, so I don't feel bad about that one. Bareev's success was in part a matter of his superior preparation, so that was explicable, too. But Rublevsky's win I still don't understand. Even with the benefit of hindsight, I can't produce a story that explains how he was able to defeat a younger, higher-rated opponent with more experience in top-level play. That's why they play the games! Speaking of which, we have the...
Round 2 Pairings: (Matches start Wednesday)
Aronian - Shirov
Leko - Bareev
Grischuk - Rublevsky
Kamsky - Gelfand
I'm predicting the first-named player in every case, and think the first three matches will be relatively easy. The last match is the pick-'em, but I'll stick with the patriotic choice.
Tiebreak games here, sans comments.
When it comes to the candidates and the world championship, keep matches and eliminate tournaments, please!
Regards,
DM
We definitely got our money's worth out of round 1, which concluded a little while ago with Aronian finally slaying Carlsen (the Norwegian Nuisance)! The first round of tiebreakers were indecisive: Aronian won the first game, drew the next two, but blew an easy draw in game four with 82...Qc1+?? (82...Qe4, Qg2, Qa8, Qg1 and Qe1 all drew. But more to the point, a move like 81...Qg6 would have kept him out of all trouble in the first place. Still, Carlsen deserves a lot of credit for keeping what would normally be a dead drawn endgame alive as long as he did.) So it was on to glorified blitz games: 5' + 10". Aronian won the first with White, to take the lead for the fourth time in the match, and this time it was enough. Carlsen tried to create a messy position in the next game, but Aronian handled the complications and won that one, too.
Aronian will have a couple of days off to recover before playing Shirov, who routed Adams in their rapid playoff. (Shirov won the first two games and drew the third.) I don't remember Adams as a nervy player, but he completely collapsed in this match.
The third of our tiebreak matches, Gelfand-Kasimdzhanov, had the result I originally predicted, but certainly not by the expected route: Gelfand won the tiebreak 2.5-.5, winning both games with the black pieces. It's not that Gelfand is a slouch in rapid; he's not. But Kasimdzhanov's rapid results this decade have been world championship quality, so it's a mild surprise.
Match Results:
Aronian - Carlsen 7-5
Shirov - Adams 5.5-3.5
Leko - Gurevich 3.5-.5
Bareev - Polgar 3.5-2.5
Rublevsky - Ponomariov 3.5-2.5
Grischuk - Malakhov 3.5-1.5
Gelfand - Kasimdzhanov 5.5-3.5
Kamsky - Bacrot 3.5-.5
So, how did Monostradamus do? Reasonably well, but nothing to brag about. I was right about Aronian, Leko, Grischuk, Gelfand and Kamsky; and I was wrong about Shirov, Bareev, and Rublevsky. I did think the Shirov match was pretty much a pick-'em, so I don't feel bad about that one. Bareev's success was in part a matter of his superior preparation, so that was explicable, too. But Rublevsky's win I still don't understand. Even with the benefit of hindsight, I can't produce a story that explains how he was able to defeat a younger, higher-rated opponent with more experience in top-level play. That's why they play the games! Speaking of which, we have the...
Round 2 Pairings: (Matches start Wednesday)
Aronian - Shirov
Leko - Bareev
Grischuk - Rublevsky
Kamsky - Gelfand
I'm predicting the first-named player in every case, and think the first three matches will be relatively easy. The last match is the pick-'em, but I'll stick with the patriotic choice.
Tiebreak games here, sans comments.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Elista Candidates, Round 2, Game 1: The Players Cooperate
- Elista Candidates, Pre-Round 2 Statistics
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Tiebreaks
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Game 6
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Game 5
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Game 4
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Game 3: The Halfway Point
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Game 2
- Elista Candidates, Round 1, Game 1
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Sunday June 3, 2007 at 3:17pm
I have a question about preparation in general. How to grandmasters prepare for games? I guess it is a general question, I am not sure how different a match preparation is to a tournament preparation, but I assume that there are some commonalities. For example, in a match probably both players prepare in-depth for the preferred opening of the opponent. That sounds rather difficult in a tournament. Can you shed some light on this?
Lastly, thanks for all the comments and information on the website. It surely is great reading your analyses and coverage.
Esti
Leko over Bareev. And here is where I stop being so sure. Although in normal cricumstances I would say Grischuk without a doubt, Rublevsky has shown tenacity and just slowly got into Pono's head. If he can just hold on against Grischuk and wait for the right time (i.e. a mistake by Grischuk), then he can pull it off. Still, I will go with Grischuk.
And that leaves the last one. Darn. This is a tough one. Just to be contrary, I will go with Gelfand, although probably it'd be nice for Kasmky to keep going strong with his come back.
Can't wait til Wednesday!
esti, comment 1: You'll have to ask a GM how a GM prepares, especially in the match vs. tournament context.
esti, comment 2: If Shirov's play was as superficial as your comment at least seems to suggest, he'd have never been the player he has been for well over a decade. Twice he was a world championship finalist, and he has just about an even score against Kramnik. And Kramnik, despite his loss to Aronian in the rapid match, has thus far accomplished far more than the talented Armenian.
Now, with that said, I still stand by my previous opinion. I think that Shirov will not be a match to Aronian. I understand that Shirov has been a previous candidate for the world championship (if I remember well, he qualified, but Kasparov ended up playing Anand instead), but Aronian's rise in the last couple of years is not empty either.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I didn't mean to minimize Shirov's play earlier (despite of what my comment sounded like), but instead, emphasize the fact that Aronian is really, really good!
I've got my money on Aronian for winning the WCCT, but it's a pity to lose Carlsen this early.
For next round:
Aronian, Leko, Rublevsky, Gelfand; I would consider the 3rd an upset and the latter very much a random pick on my part.
Esti: You were half-right in your comment about Shirov the finalist. He qualified to play Kasparov, but it fell through. Then Kasparov hand-picked Anand, but that fell through as well. (Kasparov's match with Anand was much earlier, in 1995. The Shirov match was to occur in '98, the second Anand match in '99.) Finally, Kasparov chose Kramnik, which was the best and most logical choice except for one thing: Kramnik lost the qualifier to Shirov back in '97. Anyway, Kramnik played Kasparov in 2000, then escaped against Leko in 2004 and defeated Topalov in 2006. If Shirov manages to beat Aronian, he'd have the chance for a small measure of revenge against Kramnik in Mexico City - not a bad motivator.
Also, as I mentioned before, Shirov was twice a finalist for the world championship. There's the non-match to Kasparov, but he also played Anand in a FIDE knockout final in 2001.
I think the Gelfand-Kamsky match and probably Aronian-Shirov are becoming the hotly debated contests amongst the fans.
Most opinions seem to indicate that Kamsky will "destroy" Gelfand, I find this is a bit extreme. Perhaps another post on this, a "curtain-raiser" before the balloon goes up, Dennis?
So, at least from my brother, Shirov's got love!