The 2011 World Cup is over at last, and Peter Svidler is the champion. He drew quite comfortably with the white pieces against Alexander Grischuk, and could easily have pressed for a win if he wanted to. His 34th move let Grischuk escape the worst of it, but only at the cost of allowing the position to be completely drawn. With the draw Svidler won the match 2.5-1.5 and Grischuk took the second prize.
A third qualifying spot would go to the winner of the match between Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov. Ivanchuk entered the day leading their match 2-1, but unlike Svidler he had to hold with Black. There were some anxious moments, but at the end of a pretty long game he managed to hold the draw and win the match.
These three thus qualify for next year's Candidates' matches. Eight players in all will participate: Svidler, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, the loser of next year's world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and challenger Boris Gelfand, three ratings qualifiers (at this point, it looks like Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian are sure things, with the third spot currently a toss-up between Sergey Karjakin and Vladimir Kramnik), plus one player of the organizer's choosing (as long as his [or Judit Polgar's] rating is over 2700). If Carlsen once again turns his spot down, I'm not sure what the procedure will be - maybe Ponomariov will qualify, or maybe they'll take a fourth rating qualifier, or else the organizer will select two players.
That's a ways off; for now, let's finish up on the World Cup. The tournament site (with today's video coverage) is here (I warn you, though, you might want to turn it off just before the very end!), and today's games (with my notes to the first game but not the second) are here.