Bilbao Masters 01: Anand starts well!

by Alejandro Ramirez
9/15/2014 – The 2014 Bilbao Masters Final has started. The four player double round robin is the main attraction in Bilbao, which is also hosting the European Club Cup. In today's games, it was Vishy Anand that started with a bang as he convincingly outplayed Ukrainian GM Ruslan Ponomariov. In the other duel Vallejo Pons tried to crack Levon Aronian from the opening, but it almost backfired.
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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

Round 01 – September 14, 2014
Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712
½-½
 Aronian, Levon 2804
Anand, Vishy 2785
1-0
 Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717

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

Round 01 – September 14, 2014
Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712
½-½
 Aronian, Levon 2804
Anand, Vishy 2785
1-0
 Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717
Round 02 –September 15, 2014
Aronian, Levon 2804   Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717
Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712   Anand, Vishy 2785
Round 03 –September 16, 2014
Anand, Vishy 2785   Aronian, Levon 2804
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717   Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712
Round 04 –September 18, 2014
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717   Aronian, Levon 2804
Anand, Vishy 2785   Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712
Round 05 –September 19, 2014
Aronian, Levon 2804   Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717   Anand, Vishy 2785
Round 06 –September 20, 2014
Aronian, Levon 2804   Anand, Vishy 2785
Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2712   Ponomariov, Ruslan 2717

Links

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.

 

Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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