Bilbao Grand Slam leg starts today

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 + 30 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). Here are the pairings for Thursday:

Opening ceremony pictures

Five players in Bilbao – the sixth, Ivanchuk, is still working out the problems after the robbery

Girls with ID pictures of the players, which you can use to identify them above...

or in this group photo (Carlsen, Nakamura, Aronian, Vallejo, Anand, with Bilbao points)

Your favourite players up close (Magnus, Hikaru, Lev, Paco and Vishy)

Aronian, Vallejo and Anand

Photos by Manu de Alba and Pascal Simon

Video reports

Vassily Ivanchuk, the provisional top player on the leaderboard, paradoxically seems to be the most careful: “I will play each match as best I can, since all of my opponents in this tournament are very strong and dangerous”. At the moment he is the man to beat.

The man in second spot, American GM Hikaru Nakamura, three points behind Ivanchuk, remains focused on capturing the title in Bilbao, although he is convinced that none of his opponents will make this easy for him.

Magnus Carlsen, number one in the FIDE rankings, insists that after beating Ivanchuk [in the last round in Sao Paulo] anything is possible in Bilbao. "I am going to give it my all to get as many points as possible. Ivanchuk is the leader now, but complicated games in Bilbao still await him. I really needed to win that last game in Sao Paulo; It was something very special for me. Seeing myself in trouble against Paco Vallejo wasn’t something I enjoyed, but after a loss you have to keep going”.

World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who stands four points behind current leader, does not seem worried by the difference. “There are still five games left, so we have got to keep trying. It hasn’t been ideal for me so far. I feel like it hasn’t gone too well. It is difficult to choose the worst game, but I suppose it would be the one I lost”.

When asked to evaluate his performance so far, Levon Aronian blows both hot and cold. He believes that the majority of the matches have been interesting, and only seems dissatisfied with his game against Anand. He thinks it is “time to improve. I am confident that I will play better in Bilbao”, where he will undoubtedly fight for victory. “There are still five rounds left, so anyone who is not way down in terms of points can win the title”, he says.

Paco Vallejo, the special guest at the Masters Final this year, does not hide his disappointment over his poor showing so far. In the five rounds played in Brazil the Spaniard suffered four losses and has walked away with one victory. “I haven’t been very inspired in the games”, he says, “It’s no use grumbling about it, so in Bilbao I will come out in full force. I am sure I will do much better.” Vallejo is aware that he is competing among players all within the top ten in the world, but he believes he has what it takes to play against them. When it comes to what we can expect in Bilbao he is convinced that in the remaining games there is still a lot of play left. "I would not rule anyone out (when it comes to the title), not even myself…”.

Bilbao system scores after five rounds

Traditional crosstable after five 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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