Peaceful beginning
Thursday, 12 May 2011
The first semis of the Candidate Matches-2011 in Kazan ended in a draw.
In the first semi-finals of the Candidates Matches-2011 for FIDE World Championship there was not very much fire and both game Grischuk – Kramnik and Kamsky – Gelfand finished in a draw. Russians played opening only, and after 16 moves in Queen Gambit, and in an hour and some minutes agreed to share the point.
In the second game, there was more fight, but not so much critical or very interesting positions. In Sicilian, they played first five moves, the same as in the game Kamsky – Topalov, but after that American GM went back to the most usual way in this variation, keeping slightly positional advantage, but absolutely nothing more. To make the long story short, they made 36 moves, when White offered a draw.
Round 2 of the Candidates Matches will be played with the opposite colours: Kramnik – Grischuk and Gelfand – Kamsky. The games are scheduled to start at 03.00 p.m. local time.
Yawn!