Bilbao: So wins after tie-break
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.
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
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
Glad to see you Ruslan!!! Any news of a comeback to World Championship?
There were four players, and they already played a double round robin against each other. How many more rounds can you have? Sometimes there are just too many draws. There is nothing you can do about it.
I am happy for Giri, but sad to see Anand's inevitable decline. (Already overdue at age 46.) I hope he has it in him to give at least one more brilliant performance at the Candidates.
I am happy for Giri, but sad to see Anand's inevitable decline. (Already overdue at age 46.) I hope he has it in him to give at least one more brilliant performance at the Candidates.
Double round robin is enough games played but I think they should have invited more players. Anyway high number of draws happen in top level once in a while and as long as games are fighting and interesting, it is OK.
"This is a classical tournament. However, the winner has won one classical game only."
This is why classical tournaments at this level must have more rounds. This was a a bit of a farce. An entertaining farce.
This is why classical tournaments at this level must have more rounds. This was a a bit of a farce. An entertaining farce.
Liren lost to So, Anand lost to Giri. In the standings Anand took 3rd and 4th spot for Liren. No tie break supposed to be as Giri won against Anand the 3rd place player while So won against Liren the 4th placer. A tie break was required by the organizer only for 1st place to 2nd; and why not required for Anand vs. Liren for 3rd place since both tallied an equal score?
@CostaMaison3
You can win in chess only if your opponent makes a blunder. A world top 10 SuperGM opponent will blunder very rarely so DRAW is a likely outcome. That's the reason why Shortening the time such as in rapid will create more decisive results because there are more occurrence of blunders. Inviting weak players too will increase the possibilities of decisive result.
You can win in chess only if your opponent makes a blunder. A world top 10 SuperGM opponent will blunder very rarely so DRAW is a likely outcome. That's the reason why Shortening the time such as in rapid will create more decisive results because there are more occurrence of blunders. Inviting weak players too will increase the possibilities of decisive result.
Wesley So's first game against Ding Liren is a rare gem. It is usually Black sacrificing the queen as in the games of Kings Indian giants - world champions Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, and Mikhail Tal, and prominent grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi, Miguel Najdorf, Efim Geller, John Nunn, Svetozar Gligorić, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Ilya Smirin, Teimour Radjabov and Ding Liren. Memorable games are the games of Eduard Gufeld against Vladimir Bagirov USSR 1973 and Arthur Yusupov's games against Vassily Ivanchuk Brussels 1991. It spoiled Ivanchuk's career.
This is a classical tournament. However, the winner has won one classical game only.
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