Grischuk and Aronian’s views on their match
Although the tournament favourite was knocked out, Aronian and Grischuk’s tie-break was somewhat overshadowed by events in the other match. In fact, it turned out afterwards that the players had been disturbed by the “bam-bam-bam” of Kramnik and Radjabov playing blitz!
Kramnik and Radjabov’s post-match press conference
After a relatively dull war of attrition, the Kramnik – Radjabov match exploded into life in the tie-breaks, and particularly the incident-packed blitz games. The post-match press conference was unmissable, but was conducted in Russian. Here then, is an English translation of what they had to say.
Radjabov decides not to tilt at FIDE windmills
One of the last obstacles to the Candidates Matches going ahead in May this year in Kazan appears to have gone, with Teimour Radjabov deciding not to dispute the decision to replace Magnus Carlsen with Alexander Grischuk. He made the announcement in an interview with Teimour Tushiev for Extratime.az.
Radjabov to challenge Grischuk’s place?
After his impressive second-place finish in the Blitz World Championship, Teimour Radjabov talked about the event, but also the issue of Grischuk replacing Carlsen as his opponent in the first round of Candidates Matches.
Update on the Gashimov saga
Perhaps the most significant story in the run-up to this year’s Olympiad was the Azerbaijan team’s decision to leave out Vugar Gashimov. They paid the price at the chess board (finishing 12th), but there were also more problems between the team and captain during the event, and conflict continues to rage now it’s over.
Gashimov left out of Azerbaijan team for Olympiad
In an ugly turn of events, Azerbaijan, previously real contenders for a gold medal at the Olympiad, have chosen to leave out Vugar Gashimov, one of their star players. This follows a bitter conflict with the team management and a nationalistic campaign against the 2719-rated player.
Gashimov at Crestbook
Vugar Gashimov recently gave an interesting interview at Crestbook. He goes into detail on what happened at the end of the World Team Championship in Turkey, where quick draws with the US left the Azerbaijan team without medals.
