São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final

Round two

Report and pictures by Albert Silver

Just adorable

The second round of the Grand Slam Masters in São Paulo was no less exciting than the first, and the organizers included numerous activities such as tournaments for children, to maximize the efforts to use the event as a promotional tool for chess.

"Hmmm.... does she think I am intimidated?"

Giant tournaments were organized with hundreds of children

The day also marked the arrival of Susan Polgar who joined Gilberto Milos at the commentary table.

Susan Polgar arrived to start the second round and give her expert commentary

When not in active competition, the audience was filled with rapt youth. They were
not merely being polite as I was asked by a very young spectator to not block one
of the board monitors.

The first game to end was a fairly uneventful draw between Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian with neither allowing the other a chance to create any trouble, but soon the spectators would soon find that this was merely the eye of the hurricane.

Vishy Anand is still getting in gear after his three month layoff

It was a fairly uneventful game and they soon agreed to a draw

The game between Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana soon looked like a page from the Apocalypse, as the Italian took advantage of a mistake by the Russian to sneak in his bishop, and then blow his opponent’s position sky high with two successive exchange sacrifices to take it to the king.

Sergey Karjakin shows his most penetrating gaze

Whereas yesterday the young Italian was certainly quite lucky to walk home with the full point, this time the merit was all his as he attacked with great gusto for an attractive win. This also means that he is now the early leader with six points.

A deeply disappointed Sergey quickly explained that he made a mistake in the move
order before leaving the stage

Fabiano Caruana listens to Gilberto Milos's question

The game between Francisco Vallejo-Pons and Magnus Carlsen was another affair entirely. The game started quite slowly giving Carlsen exactly the kind of endgame he likes. While promising, that still meant an early endgame, which is not usually the most exciting way to pursue the full point. That said, to squeeze out a win from what is objectively an equal endgame against a player in the world’s top 50 still smacks of black magic. The final winning maneuver with Bd3-Bf1-Bxg2-Bh3-Bf5 was worth an inclusion in endgame test books and future instruction manuals.

After his win, Carlsen ponders a move with Paco before joining the press conference

Photos by Albert Silver and official site

Traditional crosstable after two rounds

Bilbao crosstable after two rounds

Playchess commentary schedule

Schedule and results

São Paulo partners

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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