What can be done with this, there will be fights, and wounds, too… (23.11.2000)

Now we’ve made some prognoses. The schedule of the Championship allows to guess the development of events partially, approximately. There are many grandmasters of a similar class, but the lots divided fighters, and some of the 28 privileged players have a chance to finish their performance as early as in the second round, whereas almost half of them will be knocked out after third. We can guess some of the participants of the fourth round. There will be either Ivanchuk or Khalifman there. Anand will succeed most probably, all the more that he will play at home. The hero of Las Vegas Nisipeanu will have poor chances against Bareev or Tkachiev or someone else. Shirov will face Gelfand. The semi-final quartet just cannot be guessed, as all the opponents are worthy and strong. Some twenty or even thirty well known grandmasters have real chances to get up as high. So our preferences may not coincide with the championship’s chronicle.