As a finalist of the 2010 world championship cycle, Kamsky was given direct entry to the eight player Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012. The candidates tournament began with best-of-four game match format in May 2011 in Kazan, with Kamsky facing Veselin Topalov in the quarterfinals. With a win on the Black side of the Gruenfeld defense in the second game, Kamsky held on to defeat the top-seeded Topalov 2½–1½ to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, he faced the 2009 Chess World Cup champion Boris Gelfand in a rematch of their 2007 Candidates tournament meeting won by Gelfand. After four games, the match was tied at 2–2, with rapid tiebreaks to decide the winner on May 16. In the rapid tiebreaks, Kamsky won game 3 with black to take a 2–1 lead and needed only a draw with white in the final rapid game to advance to the final. However, Gelfand won with black to force a blitz playoff, which he won 2–0 to eliminate Kamsky and reach the Candidates final.