He is the ultimate comeback kid. Gata Kamsky's third US Championship title victory in St. Louis puts the former Soviet prodigy alongside the likes of Emanuel Lasker, the former world champion who resurrected his career late in life after a lengthy layoff.

At 17, Kamsky won his first US Championship title in 1991 when he was then one of the world's top players - but he stunned the world by taking an eight-year break from serious play. He resurfaced again for the 2004 US Championship, and in 2007, he won the Fide World Cup to be automatically back in the World Championship cycle.

Kamsky waited a record 19-years between his first and second US Championship titles when he won last year; and now - at the age of 36 - there's no holding him back, when in a deja vu of last year's final, he beat Yury Shulman to take the $40,000 first prize - and he won't even have the time to celebrate, as he's now en route to deepest Russia for his Candidates Match in Kazan against Veselin Topalov that starts next Thursday.

Third place (and the little matter of an additional $5,000 in prize money) was decided by Armageddon, and was won by GM-elect Sam Shankland, who beat GM Robert Hess in the playoff. The US Woman's Championship also went to the Armageddon decider, with IM Anna Zatonskih claiming her fourth title and the $18,000 first prize by winning the bid process and successfully holding the draw with Black against WFM Tatev Abrahamyan.

The official countdown has started for Fide's long-awaited Candidates matches to determine the next World Champion challenger, with the opening ceremony in Kazan, Russia now just days
away.

The previous candidate was Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, who declared last year when the elimination contest was relocated from Azerbaijan - because Armenia's Levon Aronian declared he wouldn't play any of the Azeri contingent there due to a neighboring dispute - that he would not play a Russian in Russia. Rightly or wrongly, he felt he was unfairly treated during his 2008 title loss to Vladimir Kramnik.

The issue may well be avoided thanks to the somewhat arbitrary pairings. In the quarterfinals the eight top Grandmasters will be divided into two groups. Topalov faces a familiar foe, back-to-back U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky. If Topalov wins he will then meet the winner between Boris Gelfand (Israel) and Shakriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan). The other four contestants are paired with Kramnik facing Timour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), and the other Russian, Alexander Grischuk meeting big favorite Aronian.

In a scenario where ratings predict outcomes, the six-game final should see Topalov losing to Aronian. But this is match-play and anything can happen; and considering Fide's track record here, a more chaotic outcome remains possible as no one knows as yet what will happen should Topalov have to face either Kramnik or Grischuk in the final. The winner will then go forward to challenge World Champion Vishy Anand in a title match scheduled for the first half of next year.

Chess.FM will be back on the air with live coverage throughout from May 5th-27th, with play starting on match-days at 7:00am ICC Server Time. We'll also have our Game of the Day service and the New In Chess trivia contest, where each day an ICC member can win a 1-year subscription to New In Chess magazine. So if you want the best ringside seat for the Battle of the Candidates, join ICC today by clicking here.

Full details and the playing schedule is available at the official Fide site at http://kazan2011.fide.com/

ICC has also made its Newsletter service available now on an RSS feed for you to get all the latest news on ICC online activities - get it now to keep in touch with ICC!

 Subscribe to this feed