"You should read his letter more carefully. It does not say that Topalov refuses to play in Russia. He’ll be in Khanty-Mansiysk for the Olympiad and will represent Bulgaria on board one. Topalov is refusing to play a match against a Russian player in Russia, if that match is connected with the [World Championship] title. The chances of Topalov meeting a Russian player in Kazan aren’t high, since for that both would need to get to the final – though it’s a possibility.

In general we were really outraged that the proposal to move the matches to Kazan were presented suddenly, at the last moment. FIDE kept the candidacy a secret. They have long known that there was a problem with Baku, because of Aronian, and that it was impossible to resolve. An international federation with self-respect should have opened up bidding for running the Candidates Matches in another city. Incidentally Sofia could have offered a million dollars. Where is the problem?

But, like magicians, they produced the Kazan candidacy “from up their sleeve” at the last moment, and now they say: this is where you’ll play. At the same time they are holding on to the wildcard nominee from Baku, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. It is absurd! If the matches are run in Russia then the nominee should be from Russia. What has Azerbaijan got to do with it?"

Source: Chessbase

See Alexandra Kosteniuk's Analysis of Game 12.

4-4 at the half ...Who will win?



see Chessbase for full halfway report.

The last sentence in the article by my buddies over at Chessvibes says it all:

"Observers from the hall confirm there was no handshake at the end of the game."

I personally think that fatigue is starting to set in for both players and this will be the telling time for Anand. His technical skill is superior but his will is being tried by the emotional factors.

As I said before I like both men and wish them both well.