Bilbao Chess Masters Final - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bilbao Chess Masters Final (also called the Grand Slam Chess Final) is one of the most important annual chess tournament

Chess tournament

A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.Today, the most recognized chess...

s 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

Grand Slam Chess Association

The Grand Slam Chess Association is a series of annual chess tournaments. As of March 2011, active members of the Grand Slam Chess Association include:*Pearl Spring chess tournament, held in October in Nanjing, China...

. These are:

Pearl Spring chess tournament
Pearl Spring chess tournament
The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament is a double round robin chess tournament event featuring six super-GM players that takes place in Nanjing, China. The first edition in December 2008 was won by Veselin Topalov...

, 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
M-tel Masters
M-Tel Masters is an annual super-GM chess tournament held since 2005 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, sponsored and organized by the leading Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel. According to the regulations, each of the six participants plays two games against every other, thus making it a...

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

Bilbao

Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

in Spain. In year 2011 a second venue was added as Sao Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

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

Plaza Nueva

The Plaza Nueva or Plaza Barria of Bilbao is a monumental square of Neoclassical style built in 1821. Its name comes from the previously existing Plaza Vieja or Old Square in the place where the Ribera Market was built...

. This was used again in 2009. The winners of this prestigious event have been Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov

Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....

, Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...

and Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

First Grand Slam Masters Final (2008)

The 2008 tournament consisted of six players Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list...

, Vassily Ivanchuk, Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov

, Teimour Radjabov

Teimour Radjabov

Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the...

and Levon Aronian

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

World Chess Championship 2008

The World Chess Championship 2008 was a best-of-twelve-games match between the World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand, and the previous World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik...

match between Anand and Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

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)
	Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	Points
1	2777	* *	1 1	½ 0	½ 1	½ ½	1 ½	17
2	2775	0 0	* *	1 1	½ 0	1 ½	½ ½	13
3	2737	½ 1	0 0	* *	1 ½	½ 0	½ 1	13
4	2781	½ 0	½ 1	0 ½	* *	½ 1	½ ½	12
5	2744	½ ½	0 ½	½ 1	½ 0	* *	½ ½	10
6	2798	0 ½	½ ½	½ 0	½ ½	½ ½	* *	8

Second Grand Slam Masters Final (2009)

The second edition of the tournament consisted of four players competing -- Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for both the youngest International Master, eleven years and eleven months, and grandmaster in history, at the age of twelve years and seven months...

, the winner of 2009 Wijk ann Zee Corus Chess Tournament

Corus chess tournament

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...

, Alexander Grischuk

Alexander Grischuk

Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster and Russian Champion in 2009.-Chess career:In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000, Grischuk he made it to the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov....

, winner of Ciudad de Linares Linares Chess Tournament

Linares chess tournament

The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...

, Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...

, winner in Sofia MTel Masters Chess Tournament

M-tel Masters

M-Tel Masters is an annual super-GM chess tournament held since 2005 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, sponsored and organized by the leading Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel. According to the regulations, each of the six participants plays two games against every other, thus making it a...

, and Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

, second-place winner of Pearl Spring chess tournament

Pearl Spring chess tournament

The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament is a double round robin chess tournament event featuring six super-GM players that takes place in Nanjing, China. The first edition in December 2008 was won by Veselin Topalov...

since the winner Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov

refused the invitation to play the Final. Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

emerged as the clear winner, winning the event with one round to spare.

2nd Grand Slam Masters Final (2009)
	Rating	1	2	3	4	Points
1	2773	* *	0 1	1 ½	1 1	13
2	2733	1 0	* *	0 ½	1 ½	8
3	2722	0 ½	1 ½	* *	½ ½	7
4	2730	0 0	0 ½	½ ½	* *	3

Third Grand Slam Masters Final (2010)

The Third edition once again featured four players and took place in the Alhóndiga Bilbao

Alhóndiga Bilbao

Alhóndiga Bilbao is a multi-purpose venue located in the city of Bilbao, Spain. It was designed by French designer Philippe Starck in collaboration with Thibaut Mathieu and was opened to the public in stages between 18 May and 24 October, 2010...

. It was a category 22 tournament, the highest rated tournament in history. Two players were directly seeded to the final. They were Vishy Anand, the World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen

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

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

consisting of Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

, Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

, Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

and Wang Hao

Wang Hao (chess player)

Wang Hao is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang Hao became the fourth ever Chinese player to cross the 2700 Elo rating mark. He is the reigning Chinese Chess Champion, with a ranking of No. 1 in China, No. 2 in Asia behind Viswanathan Anand and No. 19 in the world...

. Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

and Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

(by winning over Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

in tie-breaks) qualified for the final masters. Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

then went on to win the final masters as well.

3rd Grand Slam Masters Final (2010)
	Rating	1	2	3	4	Points
1	2780	* *	½ ½	1 ½	1 ½	10
2	2800	½ ½	* *	1 ½	½ ½	8
3	2826	0 ½	0 ½	* *	½ 1	6
4	2749	0 ½	½ ½	½ 0	* *	4

Playoff Grand Slam of Shanghai (2010)
	Participant	Rating	B1	B2	A	Points
1		2780	1	0	1	2
2		2783	0	1	0	1

Grand Slam of Shanghai (2010)
	Rating	1	2	3	4	Points
1	2749	* *	½ 1	½ ½	1 1	12
2	2780	½ 0	* *	½ 1	½ ½	7
3	2783	½ ½	½ 0	* *	1 ½	7
4	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

São Paulo

from September 25 to October 1, and the second in Bilbao

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

Pearl Spring chess tournament

and the Tata Steel Chess Tournament; Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen

, the winner of Bazna Kings Tournament and the Pearl Spring chess tournament

Pearl Spring chess tournament

; Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....

, the winner of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament; and Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

, world number 3. The other already qualified players—Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...

, the winner of the 2010 edition, and Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Karjakin

, second at the Bazna Kings Tournament—declined to play and were replaced by Vassily Ivanchuk and Francisco Vallejo Pons

Francisco Vallejo Pons

Francisco Vallejo Pons is a chess Grandmaster from Spain. He was a chess prodigy, achieving the grandmaster title at the age of 16 years and 9 months, which makes him the 20th youngest player to ever become a grandmaster...

4th Grand Slam Masters Final (2011)
	Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	Points	TB	Perf.	+/-
1	2823	* *	1 1	½ ½	½ ½	½ ½	0 1	15	76.00	2842	+ 3
2	2785	0 0	* *	½ 1	1 ½	1 ½	1 0	15	64.00	2819	+ 8
3	2753	½ ½	½ 0	* *	½ 1	½ ½	1 0	12	62.50	2785	+ 5
4	2809	½ ½	0 ½	½ 0	* *	½ 1	1 ½	12	61.50	2775	- 5
5	2817	½ ½	0 ½	½ ½	½ 0	* *	1 1	12	60.50	2773	- 6
6	2716	1 0	0 1	0 1	0 ½	0 0	* *	10		2686	- 4

Tie Break

½ - ½

0 - 1

External links

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