EVAN@ UP-DATE CHESS: FIDE Candidates Semis G2: White wins both games!

Friday, May 13, 2011

FIDE Candidates Semis G2: White wins both games!

13.05.2011 – If the first game was fairly quiet, in game two, both Kramnik and Gelfand seemed headed for victory though there were technical issues to solve. Kramnik's situation was the less clear, despite the extra pawn, and Grischuk held, ending with a tactical flurry. Gelfand had a monster positional edge over Kamsky but missed his chance at the key moment, and his advantage evaporated. Express report.

May 2011
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

From 3 to 27 May 2011 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.

Scoreboard

Nat.

Rtg

Tot.

Perf

Vladimir Kramnik

RUS

2785

1.0

Alexander Grischuk

RUS

2747

1.0

Nat.

Rtg

Tot.

Perf

Boris Gelfand

ISR

2733

1.0

Gata Kamsky

USA

2732

1.0

Semifinals – Game two

Kramnik,Vladimir (2785) - Grischuk,Alexander (2747) [A04]
WCh Candidates Kazan RUS (2.2), 13.05.2011
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e3 Nf6 5.d4 cxd4 6.exd4 e4 7.Ne5 Bd6 8.c5 Bb8 9.Nc4 d5 10.cxd6 0-0 11.Bf4 Na5 12.Ne3 Bxd6 13.Bxd6 Qxd6 14.d5 Qe5 15.Be2 Rd8 16.Qd2 Nc6 17.Rd1 Ne7 18.Qd4 Qxd4 19.Rxd4 Nf5 20.Nxf5 Bxf5 21.Kd2 Ne8 22.g4 Bg6 23.Rc1 Rac8 24.Nxe4 Rxc1 25.Kxc1 Bxe4 26.Rxe4 Kf8 27.Ra4 a6 28.Rb4 Nd6 29.Kd2 h6 30.Bd3 Ke7 31.Ke3 Kd7 32.f3 Re8+ 33.Be4 g6 34.Kd4 Rc8 35.h4 Rc1 36.Ke5 Ke7 37.g5 hxg5 38.hxg5 Rg1 39.Kf4 f6 40.Bxg6 Rxg5 41.Be4 Rg2 42.a4 a5 43.Rb3 Kd8 44.Ke3 Rh2 45.Kf4 Rg2 46.Bb1 Rd2 47.Bd3 Rg2 48.Ke3 Rh2 49.Kd4 Rh4+ 50.Kc5 Kc7 51.Rb6 Rxa4 52.b3 Rb4 53.Rxb4 axb4 54.Kxb4 b6 55.Kc3 Kd8 56.Kd4 Ke71/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Gelfand,Boris (2733) - Kamsky,Gata (2732) [D80]
WCh Candidates Kazan RUS (2.2), 13.05.2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4 7.e3 Be6 8.Nf3 Bg7 9.Be2 c5 10.0-0 0-0 11.Rb1 Bd5 12.Qc2 cxd4 13.cxd4 b6 14.Bxc4 Nc6 15.Rfc1 Bxc4 16.Qxc4 Na5 17.Qc7 f6 18.Qxd8 Rfxd8 19.Rc7 Kf7 20.Rbc1 Ke8 21.Bg3 Bh6 22.Kf1 Rd7 23.Rxd7 Kxd7 24.Rc7+ Ke8 25.Nd2 b5 26.Ne4 a6 27.Nc3 Bf8 28.Nd5 Rd8 29.e4 f5 30.f3 fxe4 31.fxe4 Rd7 32.Ke2 Bg7 33.Bf2 e6 34.Rc8+ Kf7 35.Nb6 Rb7 36.d5 exd5 37.exd5 Be5 38.Ra8 Nc4 39.Rxa6 Nxb6 40.Bxb6 Bxh2 41.Kf3 Rd7 42.Ke4 Re7+ 43.Kd3 Rd7 44.Kd4 Bg1+ 45.Ke4 Re7+ 46.Kf4 Bxb6 47.Rxb6 Re2 48.g4 h5 49.Rb7+ Kf8 50.g5 h4 51.Rh7 b4 52.Rxh4 Ke7 53.Rh6 Rxa2 54.Rxg6 Rd2 55.Re6+ Kf7 56.Ke5 b3 57.Rf6+ Kg7 58.Rb6 b2 59.d6 Kg6 60.Ke6 Re2+ 61.Kd5 Rd2+ 62.Kc6 Kxg5 63.d7 Rc2+ 64.Kd6 Rd2+ 65.Ke6 Re2+ 66.Kf7 Rf2+ 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]

Remaining schedule

All games start at 15:00h local time – 13:00h Berlin/Paris, 07:00 New York (check your local time here)

Day	Date	Game	Commentary on Playchess
Thursday	May 12	Round 2 Game 1	Sam Collins	wrap-up
Friday	May 13	Round 2 Game 2	Dejan Bojkov	wrap-up
Saturday	May 14	Round 2 Game 3	Sam Collins	live
Sunday	May 15	Round 2 Game 4	Daniel King	live
Monday	May 16	Tiebreaks
Tuesday	May 17	Free day
Wednesday	May 18	Free day
Thursday	May 19	Round 3 Game 1	van Wely/Gustafsson	live
Friday	May 20	Round 3 Game 2	Dejan Bojkov	live
Saturday	May 21	Round 3 Game 3	Sam Collins	live
Sunday	May 22	Free day
Monday	May 23	Round 3 Game 4	Loek van Wely	live
Tuesday	May 24	Round 3 Game 5	Daniel King	live
Wednesday	May 25	Round 3 Game 6	Daniel King	live
Thursday	May 26	Tiebreaks, closing
Friday	May 27	Departure

Live broadcast

The games are being broadcast live on the FIDE web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. In addition you can watch the games live on a regular browser on our live broadcast site, which can be accessed in any regular browser, even Apple, without the need to download a special client.

Click to enlarge
When you go to the Chesslive broadcast page you get a list of all the games that are currently available in the broadcast room. The ones with the most viewers are on top, so it is easy to access the most important games. You can load and follow multiple games by clicking on "Games" on the left, to get the list. Each loaded game has its own icon, and clicking on these will jump to that game.

Live evaluation from the Hiarcs computers

On our web broadcast site there is automated computer analysis running on powerful machines loaned by Team Hiarcs. They are located in the study of Harvey Williamson in the middle of London, and work on the positions of both games in real time.

Harvey uses two very fast machines. One is a sixteen core (with hyperthreading) system with each core running at 3.2 GHz with 12 GB of RAM. The second is a 24-core system, with the CPUs currently overclocked at 4.2 GHz. That machine has 48 GB of RAM. Naturally they have every tablebase known to man, and the latest opening books on board. These computers have helped some very strong players in their preparation for some very important matches.
The evaluation of the Hiarcs machines display the main line and an evaluation profile of the entire game so far. This only happens when the games are live and the remote engines are running.

This is Deep Hiarcs 13.285 analysing during the second Kramnik-Grischuk game

Deep Fritz working on Gelfand-Kamsky

The Russian Chess Federation is providing excellent hi-res live video coverage from
the playing hall in Kazan, with live commentary (in Russian).

Watching a game on the Playchess server with audio commentary by GM Daniel King

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a Playchess member you can download ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games.