Grishchuk and Aronian win, many checkered sheep

Candidate matches round 1 report

White sheep

Grischuk Alexander (RUS) - Malakhov Vladimir (RUS) 1-0

A white sheep is a white sheep. It brought good luck to Grishchuk in the first round of the Candidate matches. However, it turned to be the only white sheep of the day to work properly.

Black sheep

Carlsen Magnus (NOR) - Aronian Levon (ARM) 0 - 1

Aronian shows once again that he is a black sheep for his opponents. As we mentioned in our preview, he is the clear favorite for qualifying. Adding the sheep power to his ability will make the place in the finals even closer for the young Armenian.

Checkered sheep

Leko Peter (HUN) - Gurevich Mikhail (TUR) 1/2 - 1/2
Ponomariov Ruslan (UKR) - Rublevsky Sergei (RUS) 1/2 - 1/2
Kamsky Gata (USA) - Bacrot Etienne (FRA) 1/2 - 1/2
Gelfand Boris (ISR) - Kasimdzhanov Rustam (UZB) 1/2 - 1/2
Adams Michael (ENG) - Shirov Alexei (ESP) 1/2 - 1/2
Polgar Judith (HUN) - Bareev Evgeny (RUS) 1/2 - 1/2

Many games of round one finished 1/2 - 1/2. Was it the case that the players above received a checkered sheep during the draw? We may never know the truth, so let's look at other factors. First, the players knew who their opponent is long before the start of the games. Thus, they have come prepared to Elista. On the other hand, a pieceful start is better than a negative start, so it is logical to strive for simple, easy to draw positions in the beginning. Not on last place, the absence of the Sofia rule makes the draw a very possible result.

Visit the page dedicated to the World Chess Championship Mexico 2007 for more info about the WCC 2007.