Bilbao Masters – Carlsen beats Ivanchuk and ties for first

The first leg of the Grand Slam was staged in São Paulo, Ibirapuera Park, from September 25th to October 1st, the second leg takes place in Bilbao, Alhóndiga, from 5th to 11th October. Tournament system: double round robin with six players over ten rounds. Time control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 60 minutes + 10 seconds/move starting with the first move. Games begin at 16:00h local Spanish time (10 a.m. New York, 18:00h Moscow).

Round nine

The round had had all the promise of drama with Magnus Carlsen facing the leader Vasily Ivanchuk, and the promise of catching up with him should he win. That said, the first sign, the round was going to be atypical was when Anand capitulated after just 25 moves when his game collapsed after a couple of errors.

Anand was not all there as his position imploded shortly after he had equalized

Although there was talk of comebacks when both he and Carlsen were trailing the pack after four rounds, this will not be one of them from the World Champion. He can avoid last if he beats Vallejo tomorrow, but that aside, it seems clear that the approaching World Championship match against Gelfand is what is foremost on his mind.

Carlsen studies the World Champion's position against Aronian

Aronian describes the game to Spanish journalist Leontxo García

Though both Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura were tied for second behind Ivanchuk after their round eight wins, Carlsen had an extra strong opportunity as he was paired aainst him this round, and a victory would mean catching up with the Ukrainian.

Carlsen came out of his den roaring

As he has often demonstrated in the past, these moments usually bring out the best in the young number one, and this critical game was no exception. Ivanchuk played an aggressive f5 setup in his Nimzo-Indian against Carlsen, but the Norwegian was up to the task with a d5 that split Black's position in two. The game continued with an inspired attack that seemed destined to end quickly, but Ivanchuk was not ready to give in so quickly, and surprised Magnus with some extremely resourceful defense that came close to being enough, but not quite.

As a result, Carlsen has now tied Ivanchuk for first, and should they be tied at the end, a blitz match is planned to break the tie.

Vallejo has certainly had a strange tournament, and has a chance to walk away with
the right to brag that he beat the world number one, and came ahead of the World Champion.

Nakamura was also in an identical position to wrestle for first prize, and his ninth round opponent was Vallejo, theoretically an easier stepping stone. The game was a King's Indian in which he had a cramped position, which he hoped to give him leeway to outplay his opponent. Vallejo seemed to be doing very well, but gradually lost his grip on the position and both reached the last ten moves very short on time. When Vallejo completed his 40th move, it was a shock to online spectators to learn that Nakamura had overstepped his time, and had lost. What had happened? How was that possible?

The result that shocked spectators no less than the players themselves

After the game, Nakamura explained that in time trouble, he had looked at the arbiter and asked whether 40 moves had been played. He was unaware this was not allowed, having asked this during his previous game against Ivanchuk. The arbiter nodded his head up and down, which he took to mean the 40th move had been reached, and relaxed. When his flag fell, and he was informed he had lost, he was extremely upset.

A dazed Nakamura still having trouble believing it himself

The appeal

He immediately filed an appeal which is to be examined by the appeals committee. Though he will have White against Carlsen in the last round, the question remains whether he will be able to shake the incident off sufficiently to fight his best.

A video report of round nine courtesy of liveteleshows & Vijay Kumar

Pictures by Pascal Simon 

Bilbao scoring crosstable after nine rounds

Traditional crosstable after nine rounds

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site (Bilbao) All ChessBase reports – All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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