There's a lot of chess action going on in the elite ranks this week. At the Chess World Cup, the final has been set, where Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand will take on former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Gelfand took out Sergey Karjakin 2-0, winning both games in impressive fashion, while Ponomariov squeaked by Vladimir Malakhov to earn his place in the final. This last match is slightly longer; there will be four games played, allowing a little room for ups and downs before the end. As for who will win, I see Gelfand as a slight favorite; he's probably the stronger player, but Ponomariov has proven he can win a knockout tournament before. Wins will be hard to come by, and a tiebreaker finish is certainly not hard to imagine.

Over in London, Magnus Carlsen is doing the same thing he's been doing for the last few months: winning chess games. After two rounds, he's won both games, sitting pretty with six points -- Bilbao scoring rules are being utilized here, meaning three points for a win, one for a draw -- a full three points ahead of the field. In the first round, Carlsen took down Kramnik in a complex battle; he followed that up with another win in round two against an overmatched Luke McShane.

McShane shares second place with Kramnik, as both won their non-Carlsen games and are sitting on three points. McShane took part in one of the wildest games we've seen in a long time, defeating his fellow countryman Nigel Short in a staggering 163-move marathon that lasted over seven hours. It seems that Short was ready to resign a few moves earlier, but played it out long enough to play the longest game of his career (at least in terms of number of moves). At that point, who could blame him? For American fans, Hikaru Nakamura has been on both sides of some rook and pawn endgames -- one a pawn up, another time a pawn down -- and while both games had the potential to be decisive, in the end both were drawn. This puts Nakamura slightly behind Kramnik and McShane, at two points.

Round three of the London Chess Classic and the first game of the Chess World Cup final are both tomorrow. It's rare to have multiple high-level events going on at once; I suggest taking advantage by hopping onto your favorite chess server and catching some of the action, if you can.

Two made it through in regulation, while two got there by tiebreaks -- leaving us with four remaining players at the Chess World Cup looking to earn a spot in the Candidates Tournament for the next World Championship Cycle. Vladimir Malakhov and Sergey Karjakin took the easier road to the semifinals, winning their first games (against Peter Svidler and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov respectively) and holding draws in the second game of their matches to advance.

For Boris Gelfand and Ruslan Ponomariov, the road was a little tougher. Both players were unable to break through in their regulation matches, and were forced to play tiebreaks today to fight their way into the final four. Gelfand defeated Dmitry Jakovenko, while Ponomariov knocked off the second-seeded Vugar Gashimov, both by 2.5-0.5 scores in the rapid tiebreaks (3.5-1.5, if you choose to include their regulation games in the scoring).

Gelfand will take on Karjakin, while Ponomariov faces Malakhov in the other semifinal. If you think a rest day is an advantage, Karjakin and Malakhov have a slight edge, as they were able to relax today, while their opponents fought to advance earlier today. On the other hand, both Gelfand and Ponomariov were able to finish off their tiebreakers in short order, so it's hard to imagine there will be any significant effect from playing them.

The semifinals work just like the proceeding rounds; two game mini-matches, followed by rapid and blitz tiebreakers if necessary. However, things will be different for the final. For starters, Wednesday is already scheduled as a rest day, mitigating some of the advantage a player might have gained by avoiding having to play in rapid tiebreaks on Tuesday. The final is also slightly longer: the two finalists will play a four game match before resorting to tiebreaks.

At this point, Gelfand might be regarded as the favorite -- after all, he is the top seed -- but picking between these four feels like splitting hairs. Karjakin has shown the ability to win major events, Ponomariov has previously won a similar event in the 2002 FIDE World Championship, and Malakhov has been a World Championship candidate. Truthfully, all four of the remaining players would be reasonable winners of the event, and would be a legitimate addition to the Candidates Tournament. My pick? I'm rooting for Karjakin (I love to see the young players get their chances), but I think Gelfand has the best chance to take it down. Who do you think will win the Chess World Cup?

Just a quick update; I'll add more information on the final eight participants later this week. Despite the characterization of the Chess World Cup as a lottery, the top seeds have done remarkably well; if this were the NCAA basketball tournament, the lowest remaining player would be a #6 seed (that honor going to the 22nd seeded Vladimir Malakhov), and three of the #1 seeds would still be alive in the forms of the top three players in the tournament: Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov and Peter Svidler. There haven't been any real "bracket busters" as we've had in previous years, and considering the length of the tournament (remember, we started with 128 players, not 64), the favorites have done remarkably well.

Here are your quarterfinal pairings; these matches will begin on Thursday, with tiebreakers scheduled for Saturday:

• Boris Gelfand (#1 seed) vs. Dmitry Jakovenko (#9)
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (#13) vs. Sergey Karjakin (#12)
• Vugar Gashimov (#2) vs. Ruslan Ponomariov (#7)
• Peter Svidler (#3) vs. Vladimir Malakhov (#22)

Filipino chess prodigy Wesley So is on a roll at the World Chess Cup. Coming off a victory over Vassily Ivanchuk, So has now defeated the last American in the field, Gata Kamsky, to advance to the fourth round. So won the first game of their match as Black and held a draw as White in the second game to move along in the tournament.

The other major story of the round was the forfeiture of two Chinese grandmasters during the rapid playoffs following the third round. Both Wang Yue and Lie Chao had drawn the first games of their respective matches and had headed outside for a quick smoke. Unfortunately, both returned to playing hall late and fell victim to the "zero tolerance" rules in effect at the event. As the players were late for their games, even by just a couple minutes, both were subject to forfeiting the game they were late for. Both players also went on to lose their third games (on the board), eliminating them from the competition. I've never been a fan of these rules -- I feel that there should always be some leeway, or some ability for the arbiter to use discretion when deciding what penalty to assess -- and it's a shame to see them affect the results of a major event such as the World Cup. On the other hand, the players themselves knew what the penalties would be and considered the result of their tardiness to be fair, according to an interview posted on ChessBase.

As for the players still in the event, the remaining field contains a mix of favorites and surprises, with the top three seeds still alive. Here are the "sweet sixteen" matchups that will be contested in the fourth round:

• Boris Gelfand (#1 seed) vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (#17)
• Alexander Grischuk (#8) vs. Dmitry Jakovenko (#9)
• Viktor Laznicka (#61) vs. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (#13)
• Nikita Vitiugov (#28) vs. Sergey Karjakin (#12)
• Vugar Gashimov (#2) vs. Fabiano Caruana (#50)
• Ruslan Ponomariov (#7) vs. Etienne Bacrot (#23)
• Peter Svidler (#3) vs. Alexei Shirov (#14)
• Wesley So (#59) vs. Vladimir Malakhov (#22)