2011 Candidates Tournament (Kazan)

Eight of the world's best met in Kazan for a series of short knockout matches rather than a round-robin, with the winner earning the right to face World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Boris Gelfand came through it at the age of 42, beating Alexander Grischuk 3½–2½ in the final, the best result of his career.

◇A bracket, not a tournament

For this cycle FIDE decided its challenger through a knockout of short matches rather than the traditional round-robin. Eight players entered: Veselin Topalov, the 2010 title match runner-up; former champion Vladimir Kramnik; Levon Aronian; Boris Gelfand; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov; Teimour Radjabov; Gata Kamsky; and Alexander Grischuk, who took the place of Magnus Carlsen after the young Norwegian withdrew from the cycle.

The quarterfinals and semifinals were four-game matches and the final was played over six games. Any match still level after the classical games was decided by a rapid tiebreak, then blitz, then a single Armageddon game — a structure that rewarded nerve in fast chess as much as depth in the slow games.

◇Grischuk's tightrope

The story of Kazan became Alexander Grischuk's. Rather than press for wins in the classical games, he steered them toward draws and staked each match on the faster tiebreaks where he excelled. He eliminated Aronian on tiebreaks in the quarterfinal, then held Kramnik to draws across every classical and rapid game of their semifinal before winning the blitz to reach the final. The pragmatic, draw-heavy approach drew criticism, but it carried him to within one match of the world title.

Kramnik's own quarterfinal had been a marathon, a 6½–5½ escape against Radjabov, while Gelfand survived a near-exit against Kamsky before advancing in their semifinal tiebreak.

◇Gelfand's best result

The six-game final was a string of draws until Gelfand won the only decisive game, with White in a Grünfeld, to take the match 3½–2½. At 42, after a long and respected career, he had earned a World Championship match.

He met Anand in Moscow in May 2012. The twelve classical games finished level at 6–6, and Anand retained his title in the rapid tiebreak, 8½–7½.