So with this World Championship match out of the way, thoughts are already turning towards the next challenger for Anand.
The player a lot of people would like to see playing in the next match is Magnus Carlsen*. And the player a lot of people believe will play the next match is also Magnus Carlsen. Certainly I am one of those people, assuming that the regulations for the Candidates don't cause any problems.
As they currently stand it will be an 8 player knockout series, with matches of 4(!) games for the first 2 rounds and 6 games in the final. The 8 players who qualify are Kamsky (loser of the 2009 Challengers Match), Topalov (loser of the 2010 World Championship Match), Gelfand (winner of the 2009 World Cup), and the top 2 players from the current Grand Prix Series (Aronian and 1 other). Then the next 2 highest rated players (probably Carlsen and 1 other). Finally the organisers get to invite 1 player (no doubt Kramnik if he doesn't get in via rating). While the invite list looks pretty representative of the players at the top, the format of short knockouts may produce some unexpected results.
(* As an aside I finally realised where I had heard Magnus Carlsen's name before he was a famous chess player. Magnus Carlsson (almost the same) is a Swedish illustrator who created the cartoon Robin, and produced the film clip for Radiohead's Paranoid Android!)
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The ratings qualification spots are based on average of the July 2009 and January 2010 ratings meaning that Carlsen and Kramnik are already confirmed for those spots. Only the second Grand Prix spot and the invitational spot remain unknown and the second GP spot will be known at the conclusion of the current and final GP tournament.
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