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The two finalists of the World Cup are known now: Boris Gelfand of Israel and Ruslan Ponomariov of the Ukraine.

Everything happened as it had to happen. The best fighters of the tournament will meet in the main battle for the trophy of the competition. Both players were in a great shape, according to the words of the experts. Both players proved their rights to play in the finals of the tournaments of a year.

The way to the finals of Boris Gelfand was not easy at all: he had to play three complicated tie breaks in a row. He could overplay such strong chess players as Judit Polgar, Maxim Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Jakovenko and finally Sergey Karjakin. It is not bad for a 41 years old Grandmaster, isn't it? Before the tournament there were few people who put stakes on Gelfand. It was hard to believe that a player of such a solid age from the chess point of view (sorry, Boris) can stand the tremendous tempo of a knock out marathon. But he managed to go through and to call an admiration of not only the commentator of the Cup Grandmaster Sergey Shipov. “Gelfand is most probably the only chess player whose performance is qualitative and faultless”. Boris gives a simple and banal explanation of his success: “I just like to play chess”. Everyone likes, but it is only the Israeli Grandmaster who manages to win till now.

Ruslan Ponomariov in his 26 is already an Ex World Champion and two times finalist of the World Cup. Perhaps together with Vishy Anand he is the best knock out player in the chess history. Cool, he never loses his face, having an undisputable instinct of a chess killer. Just take his tie break games of the semi finals against the Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Malakhov. It was a real Ruslan! A disappointing defeat in the first rapid game, a quiet defense in the complicated situation, an unexpected game to intercept the initiative and a devil reprisal in the second game, a sacrifice in the third. Who if not Ruslan would risk to play a venturesome variation in the fourth game, where a draw is enough to qualify to the finals? Fortune favors brave people. Perhaps this is the reason why Ponomariov was so often favored by the fortune.