Bilbao Chess Masters Final
| Bilbao Chess Masters Final | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Double round robin chess tournament |
| Date(s) | 2011 |
| Begins | September 25, 2011 |
| Ends | October 11, 2011 |
| Location(s) | Bilbao |
| Inaugurated | 2008 |
| Participants | Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Hikaru Nakamura, Francisco Vallejo Pons |
| Website | http://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com/en/ |
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final (also called the Grand Slam Chess Final) is one of the most important annual chess tournaments thanks to the level of the participants and the prizes at stake. It is a double round robin tournament typically featuring the winners of the grand slam chess tournaments which are part of the Grand Slam Chess Association. These are:
- Pearl Spring chess tournament, held in October in Nanjing, China
- Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly the Corus chess tournament), usually in January in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, North Holland, Netherlands
- Bazna Kings Tournament, held in June in Romania
- Linares International Chess Tournament usually held in February but this event was cancelled due to lack of financial support during the year 2011
- MTel Masters Chess Tournament held in Sofia, Bulgaria in the month of May -- which was also not held during the year of 2011.
Format
The tournament is a double round robin featuring four to six players. The tournament regulation use the Sofia Chess Rules and the football scoring system of 3-1-0.
Venue
One of the venues for this tournament has always been the city of Bilbao in Spain. In year 2011 a second venue was added as Sao Paulo in Brazil with one of the rounds in each place.
History
The first edition of the grand slam was held in the year 2008. The playing place allowed a lot of people to follow the games live and directly. A huge soundproofed and air-conditioned glazed case was constructed for this purpose on the Plaza Nueva.[1] This was used again in 2009. The winners of this prestigious event have been Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik.
Tournaments
First Grand Slam Masters Final (2008)
The 2008 tournament[2] consisted of six players Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Veselin Topalov, Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian. Topalov dominated the tournament and won the event with 17 points (football scoring system). Anand finished last in the event but such a performance by him was possibly due to the fact that the chess world championship 2008 match between Anand and Vladimir Kramnik was only a couple of months away and one can speculate that he did not want to reveal his cards.
1st Grand Slam Masters Final (2008) Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 1 
Veselin Topalov (BUL)2777 * * 1 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 17 2 
Magnus Carlsen (NOR)2775 0 0 * * 1 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 13 3 
Levon Aronian (ARM)2737 ½ 1 0 0 * * 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 13 4 
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)2781 ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ * * ½ 1 ½ ½ 12 5 
Teimour Radjabov (AZE)2744 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 * * ½ ½ 10 6 
Viswanathan Anand (IND)2798 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * * 8
Second Grand Slam Masters Final (2009)
The second edition of the tournament[3] consisted of four players competing -- Sergey Karjakin, the winner of 2009 Wijk ann Zee Corus Chess Tournament, Alexander Grischuk, winner of Ciudad de Linares Linares Chess Tournament, Alexei Shirov, winner in Sofia MTel Masters Chess Tournament, and Levon Aronian, second-place winner of Pearl Spring chess tournament since the winner Veselin Topalov refused the invitation to play the Final. Levon Aronian emerged as the clear winner, winning the event with one round to spare.
2nd Grand Slam Masters Final (2009) Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 Points 1 Levon Aronian (ARM)2773 * * 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 13 2 
Alexander Grischuk (RUS)2733 1 0 * * 0 ½ 1 ½ 8 3 Sergei Karjakin (RUS)2722 0 ½ 1 ½ * * ½ ½ 7 4 
Alexei Shirov (ESP)2730 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * * 3
Third Grand Slam Masters Final (2010)
The Third edition[4] once again featured four players and took place in the Alhóndiga Bilbao. It was a category 22 tournament, the highest rated tournament in history.[5] Two players were directly seeded to the final. They were Vishy Anand, the World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen the winner of that years Bazna Kings, Corus as well as the Pearl Spring tournament. For the other two spots a qualifier tournament was held in Shanghai, China consisting of Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov and Wang Hao. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik (by winning over Levon Aronian in tie-breaks) qualified for the final masters. Vladimir Kramnik then went on to win the final masters as well.
3rd Grand Slam Masters Final (2010) Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 Points 1 Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)2780 * * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 10 2 Viswanathan Anand (IND)2800 ½ ½ * * 1 ½ ½ ½ 8 3 Magnus Carlsen (NOR)2826 0 ½ 0 ½ * * ½ 1 6 4 Alexei Shirov (ESP)2749 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * * 4
Playoff Grand Slam of Shanghai (2010) Participant Rating B1 B2 A Points 1 Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)2780 1 0 1 2 2 Levon Aronian (ARM)2783 0 1 0 1
Grand Slam of Shanghai (2010) Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 Points 1 Alexei Shirov (ESP)2749 * * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 12 2 Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)2780 ½ 0 * * ½ 1 ½ ½ 7 3 Levon Aronian (ARM)2783 ½ ½ ½ 0 * * 1 ½ 7 4 
Wang Hao (CHN)2724 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ * * 3
Fourth Grand Slam Masters Final (2011)
In contrast to Grand Slam Masters Finals in the last years, the organizers decided to return to a six-player double round robin without a special qualification tournament. The first half of the fourth edition will be played in São Paulo from September 25 to October 1, and the second in Bilbao from October 5 to October 11.
The players invited to the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 were World Chess Champion Vishy Anand, second at the Pearl Spring chess tournament and the Tata Steel Chess Tournament; Magnus Carlsen, the winner of Bazna Kings Tournament and the Pearl Spring chess tournament; Hikaru Nakamura, the winner of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament; and Levon Aronian, world number 3. The other already qualified players—Vladimir Kramnik, the winner of the 2010 edition, and Sergey Karjakin, second at the Bazna Kings Tournament—declined to play and were replaced by Vassily Ivanchuk and Francisco Vallejo Pons.[6]
4th Grand Slam Masters Final (2011) Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points TB Perf. +/- 1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR)2823 * * 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 15 76.00 2842 + 3 2 Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)2785 0 0 * * ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 15 64.00 2819 + 8 3 
Hikaru Nakamura (USA)2753 ½ ½ ½ 0 * * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 0 12 62.50 2785 + 5 4 Levon Aronian (ARM)2809 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 * * ½ 1 1 ½ 12 61.50 2775 - 5 5 Viswanathan Anand (IND)2817 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * * 1 1 12 60.50 2773 - 6 6 Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP)2716 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 ½ 0 0 * * 10 2686 - 4
Tie Break
Magnus Carlsen (NOR) ½ - ½ 
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) 0 - 1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
References
- ^ "Chess News - Grand Slam Chess Final Masters Bilbao". ChessBase.com. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ^ "Bilbao Grand Slam Chess Final (2008)". Chessgames.com. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ^ "2nd Grand Slam Masters Bilbao Final (2009)". Chessgames.com. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ^ "Bilbao Masters (2010)". Chessgames.com. 2010-10-16. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ^ 2010 Bilbao Masters preview, Chessbase News, 8 October 2010
- ^ Posted on. "Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, Nakamura, Ivanchuk and Vallejo will contest the Masters Final | Bilbao Chess Masters Final 2011". Bilbaofinalmasters.com. Retrieved 2011-09-13.