Bilbao: So wins after tie-break

by André Schulz
11/2/2015 – Twelve games were played at the Chess Masters Final in Bilbao but only two had a winner. In the first half Wesley So defeated Ding Liren, in the second half Anish Giri won against Vishy Anand. But So won the tournament by beating Giri 1.5-0.5 in the tie-break. In the Ibero-American Championship Lazaro Batista Bruzon leads with 6.5/7, one point ahead of the field.

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The VIII Grand Slam Masters Final in Bilbao is played from 25. October to 1. November. Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri, Ding Liren and Wesley So play a double round-robin event, in which the 3-points rule applies. A player receives 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.

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Four of the world's best players took part in the Chess Masters Final in Bilbao. They played twelve games but only two of them had a winner. The Sofia-Rules (no draws before move 30) and the three-point-for-a-win rule did not reduce this high ratio of draws. But that is a risk you have to run when inviting four almost equally strong top players. However, the organiser was happy to show interesting fighting games and there was no shortage of those.

In the first half of the tournament Wesley So was the only player who could win a game. He brilliantly defeated Ding Liren in the King's Indian. In the second half of the tournament Anish Giri was the only player to win a game. In the fourth round Vishy Anand played with Black against the young Dutchman, and suffered from a blackout. In a well-known line of the English opening Giri tried a rare move and Anand failed to see the venom of this approach. Thus, after eleven moves Giri had a won position and the game was practically over.

Anish Giri

Giri-Anand

 

"Probably the worst game I have ever played in my life," Anand said after his defeat. Giri was euphoric after the game and remarked that "only very few players, World Champion Carlsen included, had a won position against Anand after eleven moves."

Anand began the game confidently.

A short chat...

... after the game.

In the end the two players who had won one of their games shared first place and a tie-break had to decide who would win the tournament. It turned out to be Wesley So who defeated Anish Giri 1.5-0.5 and thus won the Grand Slam Masters Final.

Ruslan Ponomariov watches the game between Ding Liren and
Wesley So. The former FIDE World Champion lives in Bilbao.

Round 5

 

Games

 

 

Tie-break games

 

Open

After seven rounds the Cuban grandmaster Lazaro Batista Bruzon leads the Ibero-American Championship with an impressive score of 6.5/7. One point behind follow four players with 5.5/7 each.

Board one

Lazaro Batista Bruzon (left) and Francisco Vallejo Pons

View from above

Standings after 7 rounds

1 m Bruzon Batista, Lazaro CUB 6,5 28.5 32.0 23.0 2659
2 m Granda Zuniga, Julio E PER 5,5 31.5 34.5 25.0 2667
3 m Fier, Alexandr BRA 5,5 28.5 32.0 23.0 2624
4 m Pichot, Alan ARG 5,5 28.5 31.5 23.0 2523
5 m Bachmann, Axel PAR 5,5 27.5 31.0 22.0 2593
6 m De La Riva Aguado, Oscar AND 5,5 27.5 30.5 22.0 2497
7 m Del Rio De Angelis, Salvador G. ESP 5,5 27.5 30.0 22.0 2512
8 m Martinez Romero, Martin COL 5,0 29.0 30.5 22.5 2402
9 m Peralta, Fernando ARG 5,0 28.5 32.5 22.0 2563
10 m Martinez Duany, Lelys Stanley CUB 5,0 26.0 29.0 20.5 2470
11 m Roselli Mailhe, Bernardo URU 5,0 26.0 28.5 20.5 2411
12 f Vega Gutierrez, Sabrina ESP 5,0 22.5 24.5 18.5 2391
13 m Blanco Acevedo, Cristobal Jose VEN 5,0 22.0 23.5 16.5 2306
14 m Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 4,5 29.0 33.0 23.5 2684
15 m Santos Latasa, Jaime ESP 4,5 29.0 32.0 22.5 2518
16 m Barria Zuniga, Daniel CHI 4,5 27.0 30.5 21.5 2413
17 f Matnadze, Ana ESP 4,5 26.5 29.5 20.0 2353
18 m Fernandez Borrego, Pablo ESP 4,5 26.5 29.0 21.0 2410
19 m Gonzalez Trigal, Jose Luis ESP 4,5 26.5 28.5 21.0 2268
20 m Perez Mitjans, Orelvis ESP 4,5 25.5 29.0 20.0 2457
21 m Gonzalez Acosta, Bernal CRC 4,5 25.0 28.5 20.0 2497
22 m Arias Garcia, Luis Javier ESP 4,5 24.5 24.5 19.0 2147
23 m Larrea, Manuel URU 4,5 23.0 25.5 18.0 2311
24 m Murillo Tsijli, Alexis CRC 4,5 21.0 23.0 16.5 2291
25 m Gonzalez Pereira, Asier ESP 4,5 19.5 19.5 14.5 2080

... 93 players

Games

 

Photos: Organiser

Tournament site...

Tournament blog...

 


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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