Ponomariov defeated Malakhov 3-1 in the tie-breaks to become the second finalist in the world cup. Now he'll have a much needed rest day, the 4 game final starts tomorrow.
In a way, Gelfand--Ponomariov is like a preliminary Candidates Match. The match length (4 games) will be the same as the quarter-final matches next year, and the winner will move on to the quarter-finals while the loser will lose his last chance to become world champion in this cycle.
As a young teenager, Ponomariov played in the 1999 (2nd round) and 2000 (1st round) knock-outs, but never got very far, however in 2001-2, he beat Bareev in the quarter-finals on tie-breaks, beat Svidler 2.5-1.5 in the semi-finals, and a month later decisively defeated Ivanchuk in the final 4.5-2.5 to become FIDE champion.
He did not play in the 2004 World Championships, but did participate in the 2005 World Cup where he finished 2nd, qualifying him for the candidates matches. In his first candidate match he lost to Rublevsky 3.5-2.5, eliminating him from the 2007 cycle.
He made another run in 2007, but was stopped in the quarter-finals by the eventual winner Kamsky.
Gelfand's world championship experience goes all the way back to 1990, where he scored 1st-2nd in the Manilla Interzonal qualifying him for the candidates. He won his first candidates match on tie-breaks but lost to the eventual winner of candidates cycle, Nigel Short.
In 1993, he participated in the FIDE world championship event and finished clear 1st. In his quarter-final match he defeated Michael Adams 5.0-3.0 and Vladimir Kramnik 4.5-3.5, but lost decisively in his match against Karpov 6.0-3.0 (in this cycle, Karpov had to defeat both Gelfand and Kamsky to remain champion. In the knock-out tournaments, he reached the semi-finals in 1997 (knocked-out by qualifying event Anand), round of 16 in 1999 (knocked-out by winner Khalifman), round of 16 in 2000 (knocked-out by runner-up Shirov), quarter-finalist in 2002 (lost to Svidler), quarter-finalist in 2004 (lost to winner Kasimdzhanov)
In 2005, Gelfand scored 6th place in the world cup, qualifying him for the 6-game candidates matches. Gelfand defeated Kasimdzhanov on tie-breaks and then defeated Kamsky decisively 3.5-1.5 to qualify for the round-robin world championship final. He tied for 2nd place with 8.0/14. Gelfand elected not to play in the 2007 world cup (the first knock-out he has missed).
From sheer experience alone, Gelfand has the edge. Ponomariov is fifteen years younger which favors him since this has been a long tournament. It will be an interesting match. I favor Gelfand overall in regular time.
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