Txapeldun, a traditional Basque beret honoring brave champions, was bestowed on Magnus Carlsen on Saturday. The world chess champion won the 2016 Bilbao Masters with a dominant performance. He clinched the event twice before after sharing first place and triumphing in the playoff – in 2011 against Vasyl Ivanchuk and in 2012 against Fabiano Caruana. This year was different. Carlsen turned the other world-class players into spectators.
Sergey Karjakin, Wei Yi, Hikaru Nakamura, Carlsen, Wesley So, Anish Giri
Carlsen won four games, one more than all his opponents combined. He started slowly. For the first time he lost to Hikaru Nakamura in a tournament with the classical time limit. He wowed to play sharper and with a string of three victories catapulted himself into the lead and never relinquished it. His last victory came against Anish Giri, whom he has never beaten in the classical tournaments before.
Bilbao has been encouraging players to fight and to win games for years by using the soccer point system, with three points for a win and one point for a draw. It didn’t quite work this year, with only 23 percent of decisive games. Carlsen was the major benefactor, securing the tournament victory with one round to go.
The Bilbao Masters offered a two-game preview of the world championship match between Carlsen and Karjakin, scheduled for November. It didn’t look good for the Russian challenger. Carlsen took care of the first game. He was increasing his advantage slowly and meticulously, turning it eventually into an unstoppable mating attack.
Carlsen’s victory against the last year winner Wesley So was impressive. The Norwegian grandmaster reached for an opening idea used two centuries ago. He created an elusive target and when Wesley took aim, the white knights began to leap all over the board. A timely pawn sacrifice left the black king vulnerable to a final storm.
Images by Bilbao Chess and Manu de Alba
Original column here – Copyright Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregated blog founded by Arianna Huffington and others, featuring various news sources and columnists. The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and liberal/progressive alternative to conservative news websites. It offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and comedy. It is a top destination for news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington Post has an active community, with over over a quarter of a billion visits per month (according to Quantcast), making it the number 73 ranked web site in the world (Alexa, January 2014).
