Bilbao Masters 01: Anand starts well!

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 One

The matches in progress, in the background is the European Club Cup

Round one started with the World Championship Challanger, Vishy Anand, having a strong showing. His positional domination of the Ukrainian player was smooth and although he missed a couple of chances for a bigger advantage, it seemed as if Black was always under pressure.

Anand was simply the superior player today

Posing before the start of round one

Vallejo Pons launched himself with everything he had against Aronian, sacrificing a piece early on. The Armenian cooly declined the sacrifice and obtained a better position, but he wasn't able to put too much pressure despite at some point having an extra pawn. It seemed as if the Spaniard had an easier time holding than he should have.

Photos by Manu de Alba from Bilbao's Facebook site

Round One Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

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.