Candidates Semi-Finals, Day 3: Guess the Result! (With Games)
Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 12:38PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Candidates 2011

If you guessed that both games today were drawn, you are absolutely right. It was a mix of day 1 and day 2, with one absolutely lame game and one harrowing contest.

The lame game was Grischuk-Kramnik, though I say that not to condemn the players but, I suppose, in praise of Kramnik's bulletproof prep with the Black pieces. Grischuk decided it was time for 1.e4, and rather than head for a Berlin (as he did against Rajdabov in both of his black blitz games) it was time for old trusty: the Petroff. Grischuk got nothing and they called it a day after 25 moves.

Kamsky-Gelfand was just the opposite, a real adventure story. Kamsky played 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.h3!? against the Najdorf and soon sacrificed a pawn for compensation. First Kamsky was better, and he missed a big chance on move 29 - 29.Bxc4 followed by 30.Qb6 was winning. After missing his best chances, and then playing the inaccurate 32.Na5?!, Gelfand got more and more active. Under pressure on the board and the clock, Kamsky blundered with 37.Bxe3?, but got bailed out after 37...Nxe3 38.Ne5 Qf5?? - 38...Qh5, getting off the f-file, would have won easily. But Gelfand was in time trouble too, and after his move there were mass liquidations leading to a drawn double-rook ending.

So both matches are tied entering the final game in "regular time", and Kramnik and Gelfand will have White. If the trends continue, we'll have rapid (and possibly blitz) games in a couple of days. For today, we have these games, which you can replay with my notes.

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