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)

If there was one thing wrong with the recent World Blitz Championship -- held in Moscow after the Tal Memorial -- it was a name that was missing: Hikaru Nakamura. While the current US Champion can't be considered more than a dark horse when it comes to contending for the World Championship in regular chess (according to the live ratings list, he's 24th in the world at the moment), Nakamura is a bullet and blitz legend, especially on Internet chess servers. He's recently co-authored a book on the subject, too. With that in mind, it's fair to say that Nakamura's absence from any blitz championship is a bit disappointing.

On the other hand, Magnus Carlsen is no slouch when it comes to speed chess himself; he dominated the tournament in Moscow, finishing three points ahead of Viswanathan Anand (who himself was three points ahead of the rest of the field). So when both Carlsen and Nakamura were confirmed to be taking part in the BNBank Blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway, chess fans hoped the two would make it to the finals to see a match between the two stars.

Sure enough, both players advanced to the final round without incident, and the four-game championship match was on. Carlsen won the first game, and was dominating the second when disaster struck: he failed to find the correct continuation, allowed Nakamura back into the game, then blundered in a still winning endgame to allow the American grandmaster to tie the match 1-1. After that, it was all Nakamura; he won games three and four to take the match 3-1.

Of course, anything can happen over the course of just four games, and I doubt I'm alone in hoping to see more high profile games between the two, both in blitz -- I hope we can assume Nakamura will get an invitation to the next blitz championship? -- and in classical chess. The latter will happen soon, as both players will be participating in the London Chess Classic. If you'd like to see footage of the games in their recent match in Oslo, a somewhat shaky video of the first game on YouTube links to the other games as well.

If the first round of the FIDE World Cup was kind to the favorites, the second made up for it by seeing several of the tournament's biggest names eliminated from the event. Alexander Morozevich went down 2-0 to Viktor Laznicka, while Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk both lost their first games and were unable to recover against Konstantin Sakaev and Wesley So respectively. The top three seeds, however -- Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov and Peter Svidler -- have all made it through to the round of 32. Svidler had some difficulty, needing to win the second game against Finland's Tomi Nyback to force a tiebreak, then winning the rapid match 2.5-0.5 to advance.

Ivanchuk found his defeat difficult to take, as he expressed in an interview with FIDE. In the interview, which comes across as somewhat surreal, Ivanchuk claims he's done with professional chess, and will become more a fan of the game rather than a player from here on out. It remains to be seen how he'll feel after he's had some time to cool down from what seems to have been an emotionally taxing loss.

As for the American contingent, only Gata Kamsky remains, having defeated Zhou Weiqi 1.5-0.5 in the second round. Alexander Onischuk fell to German grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch, while Alexander Shabalov lost in a rapid tiebreak to David Navara. Varuzhan Akobian tried to win another marathon match, but instead was defeated 3-1 in the rapid tiebreakers by Ruslan Ponomariov.

There are several marquee matchups on tap for the third round. Gelfand will be taking on Judit Polgar, who is much more dangerous than her 32nd seed would suggest, while Navara will battle with young superstar Sergey Karjakin, along with several other matches featuring notable players facing off against each other. American fans might be interested both in Kamsky-So and Fabiano Caruana's match against Evgeny Alekseev. Perhaps the best pairings chart can be found over at Wikipedia; most of the matches in the 3rd round have something of interest to chess fans, and the favorites -- at least those who remain -- will quickly run into each other in the next two weeks.

There were few major upsets in round one of the FIDE Chess World Cup, as the top 14 seeds have all advanced to the second round in their quest to earn a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. The World Cup is a 128-player knockout event, with players facing off in mini-matches (in the early rounds, just two games) to decide who advances. In the end, only one player will earn the Candidates invite.

While the top names at the tournament have avoided early upsets, there were a few notable names that won't be advancing. Sergei Movsesian fell 1.5-0.5 to China's Yu Yangyi, while both Leinier Dominguez Perez and David Navara were forced to rapid playoffs by their opponents (David Smerdon and Darwin Laylo respectively). The results for American players were mixed; Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk have advanced to the next round, while Alexander Shabalov, Yuri Shulman, and Varuzhan Akobian will be playing rapid chess tomorrow to try to sneak into round two. Young guns Robert Hess and Ray Robson have been elimination, as have Alexander Ivanov, Josh Friedel and Jan Ehlvest.

For players facing tiebreakers tomorrow, here's how they work. First, the players will face off in four game rapid matches (Game in 25 minutes, plus a 10 second increment). Should either player hold a lead at the end of this match, they are declared the winner. If not, a series of two-game blitz matches begin; as soon as a player wins one of these mini-matches, they advance through to the next round. If five matches (ten games) of blitz are played without a winner being declared, a final "Armageddon" game will be played to decide who advances to the second round.

Like I said before, while a knockout format like this isn't ideal for choosing a World Champion, it works perfectly for giving away one spot into the Candidates Tournament. Since there are other ways to qualify, nobody is forced to go though with the format if they feel it's a waste of their time, and with just one spot on the line, every match is critical. Even without most of the world's top players (who have already qualified for the world championship cycle, or have other tournament commitments) participating, this tournament is still worth watching and should produce plenty of drama and excitement over the next few weeks.

Following the Tal Memorial which wrapped up last week, most of the participants remained in Moscow, where they were joined by more of the world's top players. In all, 22 players competed in a 42 round, double round-robin spectacular: the World Blitz Championship. Played over three days, the tournament had a superstar field and plenty of upsets.

If there were two favorites in the tournament, they were likely Viswanathan Anand, who is not only the World Champion but is also known as a tremendous rapid and blitz player, and Magnus Carlsen, who has been playing extremely well as of late. The two players were in the lead from start to finish, with Anand holding a two point lead after the first day. However, it was Carlsen who ended up on top, finishing clear first with a 31/42 score -- three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second.

Carlsen won the event on the back of an impressive 28 wins, drawing just six games and losing eight. Conversely, Anand actually lost fewer games -- only six -- but also drew 16. Carlsen also pulled away by dominating the other leaders; he won both games against Anand, as well as against third place finisher Sergey Karjakin (25/42) and Vladimir Kramnik, who finished fourth (24.5). The tournament was competitive throughout the field, with even Alexandra Kosteniuk (last place, 12.5) scoring wins against both Carlsen and Anand.

Of course, blitz tournaments don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Still, this is another notch in the hat for Carlsen, for whom 2009 has been a very good year. We'll soon see if he can top things off at the London Chess Classic in December, where he'll have a chance to finish the year with a tournament victory, and secure his #1 spot on the FIDE rating list.

Vladimir Kramnik may be best known for his solid play, but he's certainly capable of winning a game or two when the need arises. In the case of the Tal Memorial, he won three, which was just enough to take clear first in what was likely the strongest tournament of 2009. Kramnik finished with a 6.0/9 score, a half-point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk.

There was a fair amount of drama heading into the final round, as Ivanchuk and Viswananthan Anand each trailed Kramnik by just a half point, and Ivanchuk had White against Kramnik. Anand took himself out of contention by losing to Levon Aronian with the white pieces in just 25 moves. Ivanchuk managed to get an advantage against Kramnik, but couldn't find a way to convert it, leading to an agreed draw after 29 moves, and a tournament win for Kramnik.

The other big winner was Magnus Carlsen, who recovered from being sick earlier in the tournament to finish strong with two victories in the final two rounds (over Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko). Before the tournament, it was believed that a +2 score by Carlsen would be enough to overtake Veselin Topalov (who did not play in Moscow) as the number one player in the world. Sure enough, the live rating list now has him .6 points ahead of Topalov; if these ratings hold until January, Carlsen would appear on the next FIDE list at 2806, and Topalov at 2805. However, Carlsen will be playing in London next month, so it remains to be seen who will top the first official ratings list of 2010.

The 2009 Tal Memorial, being held in Moscow, boasts one of the strongest tournament fields in recent memory; you won't find many 10-player round robin events where the lowest rated participant is rated 2739 (that honor being jointly shared by Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov).  World Champion Viswanathan Anand is there, as is former champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the world's #2 player, Magnus Carlsen. Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler round out the field. All in all, the Memorial appeared to have the kind of field that would inspire a lot of excitement and plenty of fascinating games.

Instead, we started with two rounds that failed to produce a single decisive game! To be fair, there wasn't a problem with short draws; many of the early games were exciting games that ended with both sides picking up a half-point, not boring skirmishes where neither side had any interest in winning. Things have picked up a little since, but after four rounds, there have still only been four total wins in the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik currently has the lead with a score of 3/4, having scored wins over Morozevich and Svidler in the last two rounds. Anand and Aronian are each just a half-point back, with Anand also having scored a full point against Svidler in round three.

Another developing subplot: Carlsen entered the tournament with a reasonable chance of passing Topalov as the top-rated player in the world with a good result here (I believe he'd have to finish +2 to do so). However, Carlsen has fallen ill (he has a fever and a throat infection, which you can read about in Norwegian, or in English on ChessBase) and is taking antibiotics. He has started the tournament with four draws, so it remains to be seen if he'll be able to break through in the second half.