Bilbao 05: Anand clinches with one round to go

2014 Bilbao Masters Final This super-GM double round robin tournament is being played September 14th until September 20th, 2014. The players – Levon Aronian (Armenia), Viswanathan Anand (India), Rulsan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Francisco "Paco" Vallejo Pons (Spain). The tournament is being held alongisde the European Club Cup, which we will have reports for separately. The average rating of this event is 2754, making it a category 21. The event is being scored in the "soccer" format: three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.

Round Five

Today's games were certainly not the most exciting of the event. Vallejo chose an interesting line that has taken up a little win recently that leaves Black in a worse position, but simplified and holdable. The Spaniard had to hold on to his weak pawns for many, many moves, but Aronian never found a break-through and eventually the game was drawn.

Anand's last hold before becoming the tournament winner

Ponomariov found no advantage against Anand's steady Ragozin. With a solid position and no real problems the Indian was the only one that had chances for an advantage, but he settled with a draw and that was sufficient to clinch the tournament. He has one more game to play, but he has already shown a very solid performance that certainly adds pressure to Magnus Carlsen's team as they both enter the final stages of preparation before their World Championship re-match in Sochi.

Winner of the Bilbao Grand Slam masters, with one round to go: Vishy Anand!

Round Five Games

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Standings

Schedule

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN The games are being 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.