Kamsky Wins World Cup, Joins World Championship Cycle

U.S. GM Gata Kamsky today won the FIDE World Cup by forcing a draw in game four of his championship match against GM Alexei Shirov. The win gives him the right to play Topalov in a 2008 semi-final match leading up to the 2009 World Championship against the winner of a Kramnik-Anand match. It's a great come-back for the 1990s star, who went undefeated in the entire tournament! Based on his play--and especially his deep opening preparation in these matches--I think he has a very good chance of going all the way.

News, pictures, notes, and video regarding the final game of the match:

• Sergey Shipov live in Russian at the Tournament website (soon English)
• Peter Doggers at Chess Vibes
• Mig at The Daily Dirt
• Dylan Loeb McClain's Gambit weblog of The New York Times
• Chessdom on Kamsky's Victory
• ChessBase
• Dennis Monokroussos at The Chess Mind
• Jennifer Shahade at USCF.org

Read more about the history of the World Chess Championship at Mark Weeks's site or in the latest Kibitzer column ("How Many World Champions?" - PDF) by Tim Harding.