9/9/2008 – Both top players in this event suffered shock losses on Tuesday. Magnus Carlsen blamed his downfall in a very sharp game against Vassily Ivanchuk on a single move in the opening. Levon Aronian recovered from his two losses with a miracle cure which he revealed after his convincing victory against Veselin Topalov. Radjabov-Anand ended in an interesting 29-move draw. Round seven report.
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Grand
Slam Chess Final Masters Bilbao
The Chess Grand Slam Final is being staged in Bilbao, Spain, from September
1st to 13th 2008. It is a six-player double round robin event, one of the strongest
in the history of the game (at least by Elo average, 2775.6, making it a category
22 tournament). Games start at 17:00h local time (CEST). The scoring system
in this tournament is different and experimental. Players get three points for
a win, one point for a draw and zero points for losing a game. For rating purposes
the traditional 1-½-0 system will be used. The prize fund for the event
is 400,000 Euros, with the winner receiving €150,000, the second place
€70,000, etc. with the 6th player getting €30,000. The sums are unprecedented
for an event like this. Only World Championships have exceeded the amount.
Before a critical game – but who are all the people waiting in the
background?
They are soccer personalities and an organiser, all cermonially starting
the clock
Actually they are Fermin Palomares, vice president of the Athletic Club in
Bilbao, Ladies' soccer star Erika Vázquez Morales, Enrique Guzman of
the Sheraton Hotel Bilbao, one of the sponsors, soccer star Aitor Ocio, Bilbao
chess organiser Juan Carlos Fernández.
Let the game begin: tournament leader Magnus Carlsen vs Ukranian GM Vassily
Ivanchuk
The spectators in the Town Square can watch the action up close
Carlsen,M (2775) - Ivanchuk,V (2781) [D37]
Grand Slam Final Bilbao ESP (7), 09.09.2008 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qc2
Nc6 9.a3 Qa5 10.0-0-0 Be7 11.h4 Rd8 12.Nd2 a6
13.Be2? The question mark is by Carlsen, who put the blame
for the loss squarely on this move. 13...b5 14.cxd5 exd5 15.g4 Be6 16.Nb3
Qb6 17.g5 Ne4 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Rxd8+ Nxd8 20.Kb1 Rc8 21.Qd1 Nc6 22.h5 a5 23.g6
a4 24.Nd2 b4
25.gxf7+? This is where we would say things took
a bad turn for the Norwegian. 25...Bxf7 26.Nc4 Qb7 27.Qxa4 bxa3 28.Nxa3
Bxa3 29.Qxa3 Nb4 30.b3 Nd3 31.Bxd3 exd3 32.Rc1 d2 0-1. A very sharp
and interesting game.
Top Arminian GM Levon Aronian at the start of a dramatic game against...
... former FIDE world champion and local hero Veselin Topalov
Levon Aronian, who has had two losses in this tournament, has a secret weapon
to recover psychologically in such situations. He revealed it in the press conference:
read Kafka! (Warning: do not try this at home in crisis situations without expert
assistance). In any case the top Armenian GM bounced back with a convincing
win over Veselin Topalov.
Switch on your chess engines, gentlemen, and you will see: the position is
0.0000 and a dead draw. Mysteriously there is nothing either side can do to
progress. Radjabov and Anand convinced themselves of this with the next moves:
23.Ra1 Qc6 24.Qg3 Qd5 25.Qh4 Rce8 26.Qg3 Kf8 27.Qh4 Kg8 28.Qg3 Kf8 29.Qh4
½-½.
All pictures by Nadja Woisin in Bilbao
Bilbao scores
Player
games
wins
draws
losses
points
Magnus Carlsen
7
3
2
2
11
Veselin Topalov
7
2
4
1
10
Levon Aronian
7
2
3
2
9
Vassily Ivanchuk
7
1
5
1
8
Vishy Anand
7
0
6
1
6
Teimur Radjabov
7
0
6
1
6
Traditional scores (for rating purposes)
In the Live Ratings, which at the
urging of some of our readers we stress are completely unofficial and in some
metaphysical way quite unfair, Magnus Carlsen remains in first place, but his
lead over Vishy Anand has dwindled to 1.6 points. Ivanchuk has overtaken Topalov
in this list and is now in fourth place (behind Alexander Morozevich, who you
will have noticed is not playing in this tournament).
Video reports and interviews by Europe Echecs
These reports are being produced by Vijay Kumar for the French chess magazine
Europe Echecs
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
the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access.
You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.
Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
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Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
€9.90
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Grand
Slam Chess Final Masters Bilbao
