It's a commonly accepted C++ coding standard that braces should be used around all blocks.  I'm just used to following that standard because we enforced it on another project.  The main reason I follow it is that it makes it easier to add debugging code.  It also avoids ambiguities like this:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11734604/if-block-without-curly-braces-makes-subsequent-else-if-nested
In this source file, I actually had to add a bunch of curly braces to my nested case statements in because the compiler got confused.  I agree that it takes a lot of space, though.  That's why I prefer the K&R indenting style.