Chess | 10.05.11 | 10:43
Chess: Aronian stopped at FIDE Candidates’ Matches
Top Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian has been defeated in the quarterfinal match at the ongoing FIDE Candidates’ Tournament, missing on another chance to challenge the world chess crown’s holder.
At the earliest stage of the knockout tournament in Kazan, Russia, Aronian finished all four games of the main sets in a draw against Russian rival Alexander Grischuk, but lost in a rapid chess tiebreak (1 ½ – 2 ½) to be eliminated.
Grischuk now joins Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Gata Kamsky (USA) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) in the semifinals scheduled to begin on May 12.
The winner of the tournament will next year get to challenge the reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand (India).
This is the second time Aronian suffers a setback in attempting to win the challenger’s status. His previous attempt was in 2007.
(More information on the ongoing Candidates’ Matches is available at the Tournament’s official website at http://kazan2011.fide.com)
Aronian should be in the final. This is unfair.
And whose fault is it? It was his responsibility to advance and he failed, so he’s out, no excuses.
That is why Carlson withdrew.
This is the sort of reason that this format is an idiocy (thank you Kirsan, not). It should have been a double round-robin. Carlsen would not have withdrawn then either. The whole thing is a travesty.
This format is perfectly fair. Each player plays with an equal amount of time, wooden pieces and chessboard, an official FIDE digital clock, and comfortable armchair.
And the “elimination factor” makes it very interesting for the public.
Now everybody is making much ado about Carlsen. But really Anand, Topalov, Kramnik, Aronian are much the better players. And What about Kamsky ?? He went into two Candidates finals, winning One, crushing Salov, Short, Anand, Kramnik on the way. He came back with “handy” openings and just won the World Cup crushing Shirov Carlsen Svidler and Ponomariov. And now he just dominated The Great Topalov. When did Carlsen do something of the same class ???
I really like Carlsen the player, but he didn’t play because he just did not believe he had a single chance to make it to the final.
“Now everybody is making much ado about Carlsen. But really Anand, Topalov, Kramnik, Aronian are much the better players”
Really? Perhaps you should check out Topalov’s abysmal score against Carlsen? The six last wins were Carlsen’s. Topalov is one of Carlsen’s best ‘clients’.
Carlsen has won most of the recent games against Kramnik as well (he’s clearly no longer Kramnik’s ‘client’). Aronian and Carlsen have played quite evenly in recent years.
The only one here who has a clearly better score against Carlsen is Anand, and but if you look at their more recent results, you’ll discover that Magnus is winning more games against Anand. And this trend will continue in Carlsen’s favor, trust me!
If Grischuk managed to advance to the semifinals, then why shouldn’t Magnus be able to do so?