Pairings for Candidates Matches are released

The final pairings for the upcoming candidates matches, to be held in Kazan, Russia, from May 3rd to 27th, have been released by FIDE:

First bracket

Second bracket

The drawing of colours for all the rounds will be conducted during the opening ceremony of the event. The winner of the Candidates Matches 2011 will qualify to challenge the World Champion GM Vishy Anand in a 12-game match during the first half of 2012.

The pairings are organized in such a way that Kramnik and Topalov could only meet in the finals in the third match, however, one wonders what will happen in the event that Topalov does qualify to meet either Kramnik or Grischuk, considering that the Bulgarian's manager previously declared that Vesselin would not play against a Russian on Russian soil.

The first matches are scheduled to be four games long, followed by the next matches to be played two days later. The time control will be 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then fifteen minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move 61. This does not include potential tiebreaks, which if not required, would allow a third rest day. The semifinals are also to last four games, and the finals will be six games.

In the event of a draw, tiebreaks are to be held on the rest day with four games of 25 minutes with a ten-second increment per move, and should there still be a deadlock they will play mini-matches of two games of blitz games played at five minutes with a three second increment. A maximum of five such mini-matches can be played to break the tie, and if after ten blitz games, there is no winner, a final Armageddon blitz game will be played to decide it. The Armageddon is played with five minutes for White and four minutes for Black, with a three-second increment as of move 61. In the event of a draw, Black is declared the winner.

In case that was a bit confusing, here is what it might look like if it went to the wire:

Four games at 40/2h
Four games at g/25 + 10 sec. per move
Two games at g/5 + 3 sec. per move
Two games at g/5 + 3 sec. per move
Two games at g/5 + 3 sec. per move
Two games at g/5 + 3 sec. per move
Two games at g/5 + 3 sec. per move (maximum five matches)
Armageddon blitz

The four losers of the first round matches will each receive 30,000 euros minimum. The two losers of the second round matches will each receive 60,000 euros minimum, and the minimum prize fund for the final match of the third round is 180,000 euros which will be split equally between the two players (90,000 euros each).

One detail that seemed odd after perusing the regulations, concerned the tiebreaks and repetition claims. In the tiebreaks, the players are understandably not required to write down their moves, and the arbiters are responsible for this, however, in the event of a claim of a threefold repetition:

"The player who has the move may stop the clocks and consult the Arbiter's score sheet and if his next move will produce a threefold repetition of position, or the 50 moves rule, he himself must write the intended move on the (Arbiter's) score sheet and claim the draw if he wants."

The full regulations can be found here.

ChessBase reports on the Candidates Tournament