The first game of the FIDE Candidates Final was played today in Kazan. Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk had the advantage of the white pieces and began the game by playing the move .1.d4. His opponent, GM Boris Geland replied with the opening move 1..Nf6. Grischuk then entered the Queen's Gambit pawn formation by playing 2.c4 and Gelfand played the classical reply of 2...e6.The two players then continued the first game by playing these moves: 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 (for obvious reasons this variation is known as the Bf4 variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.). This first game ended on move 49 with the two players agreeing to a draw. The second game of the match will be played tomorrow in Kazan with Gelfand having the advantage of the white pieces. I will have some analysis of this game later. For now, here are all the moves from today's game:
