São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final

Round four

Report and pictures by Albert Silver

This is one of the many views to be seen within the huge and lovely Ibirapuera Park

Blue sky. This was my first thought upon greeting the day. After miserable cold, and dreary grey skies, here was a chance to take some pictures of this beautiful park. To be honest, the day was still quite chill, but the appearance of the sun made it much more bearable.

The park is inhabited by flocks of black swans

The ever friendly Cathy and Ian Rogers, covering the event for their part of the world

The visits included seeing the elite chess tournament. The newest generation, all aged
between five and seven, came equipped with smartphones, digital cameras and tablets
to take pictures and share on social networks.

The round saw the continuing surprise leader, Italian Fabiano Caruana, extend his lead even further with an even more incredible 3.5/4 and a lofty 2785 Elo on the Live Ratings lists.

A determined Fabiano Caruana came ready for battle

It is true that one could almost say it was expected of him, as he was white against the lowest rated player in the field, but to presume a win against a player rated 2700 would be kind of mad. Paco chose to challenge Caruana with the French Defense, and Fabiano opted for the Advance variation. It was a dangerous choice for the Spaniard as a single imprecision was all it took to reach a lost position. While the Italian missed the surgical win, he did get his due.

Fans came for autographs

Visiting spectators watch the players through the glass panes

Magnus Carlsen steals a glance to see what Anand and Karjakin open with

Sergey Karjakin focused on the starting struggle

Karjakin seemed to get a potentially menacing position against Anand, but the world champion kept things under tight control and a draw was agreed.

Magnus Carlsen has been having trouble keeping the pressure to the end

The final, and most dramatic game of the day, was Magnus Carlsen against Levon Aronian, the world number one against the world number two. At first it seemed as if the game would be a quiet grind between the two, but the Armenian showed he had other plans and promptly began lining up his heavy pieces as if ready to start the assault. While impressive looking on the surface, White’s positions was perfectly solid, and there was no reason to get overly concerned… except that Magnus then gave Levon his dream chance in time trouble and found himself staring at a mating line. To his infinite relief, Aronian missed it, and the game then steered toward calmer waters.

Carlsen reveals to Aronian the missed win

However, as he mentioned in the press conference after it was over, though a person should be able to put this sort of thing behind him, the truth is that he was shaking in his boots for the remainder. As someone who saw him after this dance with disaster, I can only say that he would make a fine poker player.

In spite of the nerve-wracking revelation, Aronian was always ready to pose for pictures
or sign an autograph.

Photos by Albert Silver and official site

Traditional crosstable after four rounds

Bilbao crosstable after four rounds

Playchess commentary schedule

Schedule and results

São Paulo partners

Links Official tournament site All previous 2012 São Paulo/Bilbao reports 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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