FIDE Candidates Matches 2011 start on Thursday

From 3 to 27 May 2011 Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, will play host to the participants of the Candidates Matches 2011. On April 15 FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov together with the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov discussed the questions in respect of the preparation and holding the matches. The meeting was held in the Government House of the Republic of Tatarstan. Ildar Khalikov, Prime Minister of Tatarstan, Rafis Burganov, Minister of Youth Affairs, Sports and Tourism of Tatarstan and Ilsur Metshin, Mayor of Kazan also took part in the meeting.

Rustam Minnikhanov thanked the FIDE leadership for their choice of Kazan as the venue for the Candidates Matches 2011. President of the Republic of Tatarstan assured that the Matches will be organized on the highest level.

During the meeting Kirsan Ilyumzhinov also offered to pay attention to the opportunity of the implementation of chess to the school curriculum. FIDE President added that, for example, in Kalmykia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Tomsk and Yekaterinburg chess is already introduced to the curriculum of the elementary schools. Rustam Minnikhanov positively met this offer, as a “pilot” project chess lessons ill be introduced to the several schools of the Republic during the next term of the study.

The decision of holding the event in Kazan was made during the FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Tromso, Norway. Eight strongest chess players will compete for the World Champion title; the prize fund is 500,000 Euros.

Time controls and tie-breaks (FIDE regulations)

3.5 The time control for the 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.

3.7.1.a If the scores are level after the regular games, after a new drawing of colors, four (4) tie-break games shall be played. The games shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.

3.7.2 If the scores are level after the games in Article 3.7.1a, then, after a new drawing of colors, a match of two games shall be played with a time control of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move. In case of a level score, another 2-game match will be played to determine a winner. If still there is no winner after 5 such matches (total 10 games), one sudden-death game will be played as described below in Article 3.7.3.

3.7.3 If the score is still level after five matches as described in Article 3.7.2, the players shall play a one sudden death game. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the player with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

3.7.4 There shall be a pause of 10 minutes between all tie-break games, unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise.

Participants

Pairings

	Quarterfinals (best of 4)					Semifinals (best of 4)					Final (best of 6)
	1	Veselin Topalov	0
	8	Gata Kamsky	0
	4	Boris Gelfand	0
	5	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	0
	3	Levon Aronian	0
	6	Alexander Grischuk	0
	2	Vladimir Kramnik	0
	7	Teimour Radjabov	0

Scoreboard

The drawing of colours was conducted on Wednesday night, during the opening ceremony of the event. The winner of the Candidates Matches 2011 will qualify to challenge the World Champion Viswanathan Anand in a twelve-game match during the first half of 2012.

Schedule

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

Live broadcast

The games are being broadcast live on the FIDE web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

In addition you can watch the games live on a regular browser on our live broadcast site.
A very powerful computer is analysing the games and tracking the evaluation in a bar chart.

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

Links

• Official tournament site
• All games in PGN