As in the quarter-finals, what had been a sedate, sleepy series of classical games turned into action and adventure in the playoffs. And again, as in the quarter-finals, the rapid phase of Kramnik's tiebreak was a snooze before things heated up in the blitz. But the really exciting match wasn't Grischuk-Kramnik but Gelfand-Kamsky.
After a couple of draws, the third rapid game was a big jolt for Gelfand, who lost with White. He missed a nice but simple tactical shot in the opening, and lost his queen for a mere rook. He struggled on for a while (who wants to resign after 16 moves?), but it was in vain. All Kamsky needed to do was draw the last rapid game, with White, and he would be in the finals. He couldn't do it! Gelfand rose to the occasion and won, and having won and forced the blitz playoff, he closed the match out with two more win. A heartbreaking finish for Kamsky, and a great achievement for Boris Gelfand.
As for the Grischuk-Kramnik match, it was somewhat comical. With White in the rapid games, Kramnik would push pretty hard, and in game 3 he had Grischuk on the ropes. When Grischuk was White, however, he didn't even try. In the fourth and final rapid game, Grischuk actually offered a draw on move 8(!!), which was of course accepted.
In this way, I suppose both players were happy. Kramnik got a free pass with Black, while Grischuk got to go to the time control most in his favor: blitz. Sure enough, Kramnik went awry in the first blitz game - with White, naturally - and Grischuk scored the only win of the match. When Grischuk was able to hold in the last game, despite the "disadvantage" of the white pieces, he joined fellow "G"-man Gelfand in the final.
It's a pretty remarkable result, especially for Grischuk, who received the least votes in the ChessVibes poll before the Candidates, though it's not really so surprising in the big picture. He has been a great, known talent for a dozen years, making it to the semi-finals of the FIDE World Championship in 2000, when he barely lost a very hard-fought match against Shirov.
But more on the final match later, and likewise with the annotated games. (Probably not for a day or two, though - life intervenes.)