2011 Candidates Matches

The opening ceremony of the 2011 Candidates Matches is being held today in Kazan, Russia, with the actual matches starting tomorrow. It is an 8 player knock-out, with the first two rounds being 4 game matches (plus play-offs), and the final round being a 6 game match (plus play-offs). The winner of the Candidates Series gets to play Viswanathan Anand in next years World Championship Match, at a venue to be determined.

First round pairings are

• Topalov v Kamsky
• Kramnik v Radjabov
• Aronian v Grischuk
• Gelfand v Mamedyarov

Although knockouts are terribly difficult things to predict, I'll stick my neck out a predict that all the first named players in the pairings will win (although the first and last matched could go the other way). As for the semi-finals, I am less confident of making any pronouncements, but I believe the winner of Kramnik v Aronian (assuming the make it out of the first round), will go on the win the whole thing.

The official website is here, and will show the games live.