Less than a week after Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the No. 2 player in the world in the official rankings (and No. 1 in unofficial but more up-to-date calculations), made his surprising announcement that he was withdrawing from the cycle to select a challenger for the world championship, the World Chess Federation announced Wednesday, November 10 that he will be replaced by Alexander Grischuk of Russia, No. 6 in the world.
The pairings for the first round of the candidates matches that will determine the challenger are now Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, No. 5, vs. Gata Kamsky of the United States, No. 19; Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, No. 4, vs. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, No. 12; Levon Aronian of Armenia, No. 3, vs. Grischuk; and Boris Gelfand of Israel, No. 14, vs. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, No. 8.
2011 Candidates matches will be held in Kazan, Russia, early next year, The New York Times reported.
