European Club Cup and the Ratings Watch
The 2013 European Club Cup in Rhodes, Greece has finished, and as the teams generally have relatively little geographical unity I'll leave an investigation of the team results to you, dear readers. Of more interest to this writer was the individual aspect, and that such superstars as Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Alexander Grischuk (and a very big "and so on") were participating. The three players just listed were the three highest-rated players not to have qualified for the Candidates', and are as such the three likeliest possibilities for the final, wildcard spot to determined by the Candidates' organizers.
As the tournament will be in Russia (in Khanty-Mansyisk, a.k.a. FIDE's branch office in Siberia), Grischuk was already the likeliest suspect. As it turned out, he had the third-highest TPR in the event, and bypassed Caruana on the live list and almost surpassed Nakamura as well. I don't know if Grischuk is now a shoo-in for the wildcard, but he's got to be awfully close. Considering that he came close in the Grand Prix and is currently rated #5 in the world, he would make an excellent choice.