Candidates Matches

Two rounds have already passed in the long-awaited event: Candidates Matches from Kazan. So, who will face Anand for the World Title?! Aronian was seen as the clear favourite on various websites and our poll didn't make a separate opinion. But there are still many games to go, we can enjoy their fights much longer and see if the final standings will look like our predictions.

Tata Steel Chess - A Group poll

The closing date of our Tata Steel A -Group poll has come. Which means: the first round is almost there! Exciting for all chess lovers, as well as for me: Erwin is playing in the A-Group this year. No matter what will happen, it is a wonderful experience for both of us, even if he has to play against all these "scary" guys:)

But let's see who is your favourite in the race for the first place...

Aronian - first place in Tal Memorial! Our poll was right:)

We had a poll running for a few days, about who was going to win the Tal Memorial. Aronian got 31% from our votes, which made him the favourite (in our view) in the race for the first place! And...voila! He is the first:) Of course...the last round was a very tense affair, which we all enjoyed for sure:) In any case, we predicted the winner!

Final Standings after nine rounds:

Levon Aronian

1. Aronian           5.5
2. Karjakin           5.5
3. Mamedyarov    5.5
4. Grischuk          5
5. Nakamura        5
6. Wang Hao        5
7. Kramnik           4.5
8. Gelfand           3.5
9. Shirov             3
10. Eljanov          2.5

I am wondering now...if we are such experts, why not happening the same (to be right), with our current poll for Tata Steel Chess?! I see that my husband gets a lot of support from you:) But you know...second place is also quite ok, I will be unhappy only for a couple of weeks...:)

Who will win the Tal Memorial?

Today's title was for a few days the question for our poll.
The results:
Aronian: 31 %
Nakamura: 22 %
Kramnik: 18 %
Karjakin: 13 %
Grischuk: 4 % 
Gelfand: 4 %
Mamedyarov: 4 %
Shirov: 0 %
Eljanov: 0 %
Wang Hao: 0 %

The current standings, after 4 rounds:
Aronian: 3 points
Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Grischuk, Wang Hao, Nakamura: 2,5
Kramnik: 2
Gelfand: 1,5
Shirov, Eljanov: 0,5


Today is a rest day and five more rounds to go. So far, as we predicted, Aronian is on the first position. Let's see how the final standings will look like...