Pretty cool to see two of the strongest players in the world risk their reputation like this, but it's a pitty that Carlsen chickened out!

Pretty exciting. Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to this more then the world championship match?

The encounter of two 2800+ is the first time in history.

THIS IS A GREAT CHANCE TO ARONIAN TO OVERCOME MAGNUS IN THE FIDE RANKING AND BECOME WORLD NUMBER 1.

S3 : you are sooooooooooooo pathetic

Bad decision by Aronian to participate in this match (excluding the financial gains). He is already much better than Kramnik now and if he wins he has little to gain in terms of his reputation(apart of course from the prize money, which btw is a perfectly fine reason to risk his reputation). If he loses, which is sth possible, since Kramnik is much more experienced in match-play, he will be seen as not strong enough to compete with Carlsen or Anand.

On second thoughts Aronian has a hot girlfriend to support...

is this going to be FIDE rated? If so awesome chance for these two to gain rating points, and not go down much if they don't do well. Aronian may be the sharper player today but Kramnik has much more match experience.

I believe it will be a very tough fight but Kramnik will come out the victor.

Let's expect brilliant chess, I can't wait! :-)

exciting..looking forward to the match..but these guys are almost equal so six draws could be the outcome!

Aronian and Kramnik. Add Carlsen and Anand, and make it a round 'match-robin' with 6 games between each pair of players. Voila: A true World Chess Championship. Something for the chess-history.

In the live list, Caruana is at #7, one more win in Aeroflot and he will be #6, only behind the fantastic four and Radjabov.

Also McShane is now more than 2700, any idea where he is playing ?

FAP-FAP-FAP

Are we going to see a lot of QGD in this match?

I think this is great for chess. Reminds me of Kasparov's matches vs. Timman, Huebner and Miles, as well as lots of matches in the 1800's and early 1900's. Too bad there aren't more!

Contrary to some of the comments, I believe Aronian has something to prove (or a statement to make). He has not played a serious 6+ game match against such a high quality opponent before. Kramnik's success and experience in match situations is well known, so Aronian will definitely not want to pass up an opportunity to beat one of the best match-players around today. If he beats Kramnik, all the "he is just a rapid/tournament player" noobs will have to STFU.

Promises interesting games, especially since there will be so much loved "match situations" like a must-win or a simply-draw situation. No deep discussion of the QGA or likeables is to expected, the Kramnik-Leko Brissago match ended this, if one opening doesnt work for one player the whole system is changed.

If they have six short draws and then put their hands out for payment it will be VERY bad for chess!

Is it legal to publish a picture of a g00gle maps part? can be quite expensive to use such a graphic!

I do not understand S3 first comment, I feel that I am dumb :(

its going to be nice ;)

Classical time control - wow! This is an event to look forward to.

It always looks silly when press releases strive to make things look much bigger by making things up. They call this "the first encounter in the history of chess between two players with a rating above the magical 2800 limit and it is the first ever friendly match at the top level".

It is of course not the first encounter ever between two players rated 2800+, not the first match between 2800+ players either (Kasparov-Kramnik, Moscow 2001), and far from the first friendly match ever at top level (too many to mention, but Anand-Ivanchuk, Linares 1992, to take one example from currently active top players). But if you want to sell something it's usually a good idea not to bother too much about the truth.

Looking forward to this match. I think Levon Aronian will win the match 3.5-2.5, winning one game and drawing the rest.