Upcoming candidate matches

[Javier]

Here are my predictions for the upcoming Candidates matches:

 

Aronian vs Carlsen – I don't think Carlsen has much of a chance at this stage of his chess career. Aronian will crush him.

Leko vs Gurevich – A more even match would have been Gurevich - Carlsen. Leko will win.

Ponomariov vs Rublevsky – Rublevsky won the Russian Championship ahead of Morozevic, Khalifman, Dreev, Jakovenko... meanwhile Pono hasn't done much over the last couple of years, so Rublevsky is clearly the favourite for this one.

Gelfand vs Kasimdzhanov – Kasimdzhanov defeated Adams to win the FIDE title. Although that match could have gone either way, I still think that Kasim is a stronger player than Gelfand nowadays, so I think Kasmdzhanov will win.

Bacrot vs Kamsky – Kamsky is also the favourite for this one, if only because of his determination.

Grischuk vs Malakhov – I'll be honest: I haven't got a clue what will happen on this one!

Polgar vs Bareev – Although Bareeve has had very poor results over the last couple of years, Polgar's been away from competition ever since she became a mother. I think Bareev will win.

Shirov vs Adams – I wish Shirov won this one, but he's so out of form over the last 12 months that anything could happen on this one. I'm really looking forward to seeing the games from this particular match though, they're going to be really interesting. Shirov has never lost a WC match against anyone, he even defeated Kramnik. Then Kasparov, in what is known as one of the most indecent acts in the history of FIDE's World Championships, didn't have the guts to play Shirov, and his excuse was that nobody was interested in that much and FIDE couldn't et any sponsors, so that match was called off...