After starting with a draw in the rapids, Gelfand won the following two games whereas in the other tie-break Ponomariov took the advantage even earlier, winning the first two rapid games.
There was a hint of tiredness in these rapid play-offs as the players have now been going for two weeks of highly tense encounters.
| Name | Country | Rating | Age | Classical game 1 | Classical game 2 | Rapid game 1 | Rapid game 2 | Rapid game 3 |
| Boris Gelfand | ISR | 2758 | 41 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 |
| Dmitry Jakovenko | RUS | 2736 | 26 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 |
After getting nowhere against Gelfand's Petroff in the first game, Jakovenko opted for a reputedly solid line of the Ragozin in the second of the rapids. However his position collapsed too easily suggesting a major oversight on his part.
The Russian then decided to select a sharp variation to aim to equalize with his last White, and although g2-g4 against the Semi-Slav led to complications, they favoured his opponent!
So Boris Gelfand (now of Israel) will take his place in the Semi-Finals.
| Name | Country | Rating | Age | Classical game 1 | Classical game 2 | Rapid game 1 | Rapid game 2 | Rapid game 3 |
| Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 2739 | 26 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 |
| Vugar Gashimov | AZE | 2758 | 23 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 |
In this match Ponomariov's first win was unconvincing. From the English opening, Gashimov had a reasonable position all along and only right at the death when Ponomariov sacrificed a piece (under highly speculative circumstances) did things go wrong. I presume that a lack of time led to confusion on the Azeri's part because otherwise he should probably have been better.
As White in the following game, Gashimov's desperate attempts to obtain winning chances (in order to bounce back immediately) were met by cynical efficiency by Ponomariov who just exploited Gashimov's self-weakening attempts.
In both matchs the most experienced player came out on top.
The semi-final pairings will be the following
| Name | Country | Rating | Age | Original seed | Classical game 1 | Classical game 2 |
| Boris Gelfand | ISR | 2758 | 41 | 1 | ||
| Sergey Karjakin | UKR | 2723 | 19 | 12 |
A clash of the generations as the top seed, and oldest player (in the top third of the original line-up), plays against the second strongest junior (behind Carlsen) in the world.
| Name | Country | Rating | Age | Original seed | Classical game 1 | Classical game 2 |
| Vladimir Malakhov | RUS | 2706 | 29 | 22 | ||
| Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 2739 | 26 | 7 |
The last Russian, Vladimir Malakhov, is the least well-known of the survivors and he will play Ponomariov who has an impressive pedigree and plenty of experience despite his relative youthfulness.
More details are available on the official site
