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Better late than never? Have they drawn yet? LIVE. If Grischuk has white, they probably have. You get better mileage from a Hummer with three flat tires than the Russian gets out of the white pieces in Kazan. In his four classical whites against Aronian and Kramnik, all drawn, he has averaged 20 moves. Twenty! His two rapid whites against Kramnik were 14 moves and 8! But we’re not supposed to criticize the winner, and it’s not really criticism, it’s just bizarre. Kramnik failed to punish his younger compatriot by winning with white, so whatever works. Grischuk also has a big plus score over Gelfand in recent years, with about a win per year until Gelfand nailed him with black last year in the Russian Team Ch.

If you had “Gelfand-Grischuk” in the final, you win the internets. Gelfand is the veteran of the field at 42, though he’s been carefully rationing his efforts for years in order to maximize his strength, which paid off at the World Cup in 2009 and again here in Kazan. He was fresh enough to come back against Kamsky and eliminate the American champion in blitz. As you know, I give little more than zero credence to blitz as tiebreaker and even rapid is more because we have to than anything meaningful about worthiness. Flipping a coin or spinning a roulette wheel (both used in past candidates matches) is tidy but cruel. At least in the speed games the players have a say in their destiny.

Speaking of, check the index for “destiny, player of” and you find Alexander Grischuk. He knocked out the two big favorites, first Aronian and then former world champion Kramnik. Sure, he hasn’t won a single game of classical chess yet, but that’s the way this thing seems to be going. Reaching the speed games for Grischuk is like a man crawling through a desert reaching an oasis where the pool is filled with vodka and the palm trees grow caviar. Okay, that sounds sort of gross, but you get my point. There have been so few decisive classical games in Kazan (Two. Seriously. Two of 24. Arnold Schwarzenegger probably has made more love children than that over the same time span.) that it’s pointless to talk about anyone really making a mark with their chess. Had Kramnik gone through we’d be talking about his clock breaking in a timely (sorry) fashion against Radjabov in the quarters. Kamsky came a drawn rapid game away from making the final despite escaping from completely lost positions in both his matches. We’ve known from the start that this event was about FIDE politics and money, not about a rigorous method of determining the most worthy challenger for Anand.

That said, as much as Gelfand and Grischuk deserve to be there, Anand is not crying in his mulligatawny that Topalov, Aronian, and Kramnik are out. Whoever comes through next week will be a first-timer on the biggest stage, though Gelfand can’t be called a newbie at anything and I can’t imagine the phlegmatic Israeli feeling much pressure. He finished a very solid =2-3 with Kramnik behind Anand at the 2007 Mexico City world championship tournament while Grischuk finished last. Regardless, Anand will be the huge favorite against either one.

This candidates final match is six games with a break on Saturday after game three. I hope it’s possible to root for Gelfand and hope for Grischuk because that’s what I’m doing!

I’m typing frantically to turn in a 70,000-word manuscript, oh, tonight, but thread is needed and thread will be done for the exciting Nakamura-Ponomariov clash that starts today in St. Louis. They play six classical games (hear that, FIDE?!) and then four rapids. Very different styles of play, both great fighters, both terribly strong. Nakamura’s #8 on the current list, former FIDE champ Ponomariov #11. Should be a classic. It certainly can’t be worse than what we’ve seen in Kazan for the past few weeks with, what, maybe three or four interesting classical games from twenty-four? Show’em how it’s done, Saint Louie!

For some totally irrelevant trivia, the last time Nakamura played a match like this against a Ukrainian he destroyed Sergey Karjakin way back in 2004. The two-time US champ hasn’t played classical chess since his electrifying Tata Wijk aan Zee win in January. There’s no blitz here, which is good news for Ponomariov. Nakamura beat him twice at blitz in a Donostia playoff in 2009 and then twice again last year in Moscow. Their three classical encounters have all been drawn, including an exciting but surprisingly truncated affair this year at Tata. As for Ponomariov, his match cred is impressive well beyond his stunning 2001 FIDE KO championship run in Moscow as a teen. He made it to the final again in 2005, where he lost to Aronian, the quarters in 2007 when he lost to Kamsky, and the finals again in 2009 when Gelfand came out on top in a marathon. Of course Super Mariov’s most famous match is one he never played, the one with Kasparov in 2003 that was to be part of the unification plan. But Ponomariov has long since recovered from that debacle and has been playing very well of late, if still inconsistently for stretches.

Games start at 3:30pm local time, 4:30 NY. (Not 1pm local as previously announced. Perhaps this is to give the Kazan matches time to finish, which is a good idea if so.) Official site. I just looked through all the press releases the St. Louis club sent out on the event and didn’t see any mention of the prize fund or other specs like time control. Are they out there?

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We’ve had five great carnivals. We seem to get a steady 10-20 submissions a month. Getting people to host it is a bit tougher, though. If you are interested, please email me bluedevil dot knight at yahoo. Perhaps someone at chess.com?

We’ve had five great carnivals. We seem to get a steady 10-20 submissions a month. Getting people to host it is a bit tougher, though. If you are interested, please email me bluedevil dot knight at yahoo. Perhaps someone at chess.com?

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Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

Viktor Korchnoi was scheduled to play a match with Ben Finegold in St. Louis next week, concurrent with the Hikaru Nakamura-Ruslan Ponomariov match, but has had to cancel due to health concerns. According to the organizers, the concerns are not serious in the big picture, but are enough to impair Korchnoi’s ability to travel internationally. It’s a pity Finegold and for fans who hoped to see the legend in person, and of course for Korchnoi himself. There will still be a Finegold match, however, as Ray Robson has been enlisted to fill in.

And not only Vassily Ivanchuk, mind you; it’s a very strong tournament. Ivanchuk is the top seed, with his 2776 rating, but there’s also Leinier Dominguez (2726), David Navara (2702), Lazaro Bruzon (2693), Le Quang Liem (2687) and Dmitry Andreikin (2687). After yesterday’s first round, it’s Andreikin who leads after beating Bruzon with White; Ivanchuk-Navara and Dominguez-Le were both drawn.

Tournament website here.