2012 São Paulo/Bilbao Grand Slam
Concurrently running with the London Grand Prix tournament, the Bilbao Chess Masters Final has begun and features World Champion Viswanathan Anand along with world’s two top-rated players Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian. The field also has frontliners Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana with the lone Spanish contender in Francisco Vallejo-Pons.
2012 Competitors (R-L): Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand and Francisco Vallejo-Pons. Photo Albert Silver.
The event will take part in a partnership event that will be divided between two venues… Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bilbao, Spain. Last year saw Carlsen edge out the field with a late flurry catching Vassily Ivanchuk and winning the tiebreak match.
This double round robin event will again invoke the Sofia Rules which includes the modified scoring of three points for a win and one point for a draw. The primary time control will be 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 60 minutes with 10 seconds increment. In addition, there will be no draw offers unless an arbiter is consulted.
The story may be the rise of Caruana who has entered the top ten and at this time last year was at #32 at 2712. His meteoric rise may have been overlooked in lieu of contemporaries such as Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Hikaru Nakamura and Karjakin, but he is firmly ensconced into the elite.
Carlsen, on the other hand, skipped the Olympiad and he along with Anand will be playing into form against a well-prepared Aronian and a hungry Vallejo-Pons who is looking to do even more damage than the three wins he got last year. Anand will try to dispel the notion that he cannot win an elite event.
September 24th-29th, 2012 (São Paulo, Brazil) October 8th-13th, 2012 (Bilbao, Spain) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#
|
Name
|
Title
|
Federation
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | Norway |
 |
2843 |
| 3 | Aronian, Levon | GM | Armenia |
 |
2816 |
| 2 | Anand, Viswanathan | GM | India |
 |
2780 |
| 4 | Karjakin, Sergey | GM | Russia |
 |
2778 |
| 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Italy |
 |
2773 |
| 6 | Vallejo-Pons, Francisco | GM | Spain |
 |
2697 |
Live Games: https://www.chessdom.com/ (Chessdom)
PGN Games: https://www.thechessdrum.net/palview5/bilbao2012.pgn
Monday, 24 September 2012
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Francisco Vallejo-Pons
Levon Aronian 1-0 Serjey Karjakin
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Magnus Carlsen
Aronian, Caruana, 3
Anand, Vallejo-Pons, 1
Carlsen, Karjakin, 0
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Levon Aronian
Serjey Karjakin 0-1 Fabiano Caruana
Francisco Vallejo-Pons 0-1 Magnus Carlsen
1st: Caruana, 6;
2nd: Aronian, 4; 3rd: Carlsen, 3; 4th: Anand, 2;
5th: Vallejo-Pons, 1; 6th: Karjakin, 0
Anand has three draws so far.
No World Championship to prepare for so, he can go all out!
That’s true. His play has come a bit stagnant as he plays not to lose more than to win.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Levon Aronian ½-½ Francisco Vallejo-Pons
Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Serjey Karjakin
1st: Caruana, 7;
2nd: Aronian, 5; 3rd: Carlsen, 4; 4th: Anand, 3;
5th: Vallejo-Pons, 2; 6th: Karjakin, 1
Thanks for the games!!!!
According to some analysis i saw on Chessbase, Carlsen’s 46. Rd5? is a blunder as it runs into 46. Rxb2! 47. Nxb2 fxe4 and the white rook is trapped with some good play for black….!
Knowing Carlsen, he could have probably saved the game by drawing, but it would have to take accurate play even from him!
Still early in the tournament, but how many times have we seen Carlsen start like this and somehow end up winning the tournament…
Amazing that top GMs miss so much, but the pressure is immense. Rxb2 and fxe4 is not a typical pattern to trap a rook mid-board!!
Quite amazing how top players never make such mistakes against weak players. If only Carlsen made such a blunder against me 🙂
I would have nailed him (I wish).
Caruana wins again after Vallejo-Pons blunders… stretches lead.
Friday, 28 September 2012
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Francisco Vallejo-Pons
Serjey Karjakin ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Levon Aronian
1st: Caruana, 10;
2nd: Aronian, 6; 3rd: Carlsen, 5; 4th: Anand, 4;
5th-6th: Vallejo-Pons, Karjakin, 2
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Francisco Vallejo-Pons ½-½ Serjey Karjakin
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Levon Aronian ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
1st: Caruana, 11;
2nd: Aronian, 7; 3rd: Carlsen, 6; 4th: Anand, 5;
5th-6th: Vallejo-Pons, Karjakin, 3
The Rise of Fabiano Caruana
https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2012/10/05/the-rise-of-fabiano-caruana/
Monday, 8 October 2012
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Fabiano Caruana
Serjey Karjakin ½-½ Levon Aronian
Francisco Vallejo-Pons ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
1st: Caruana, 11;
2nd: Carlsen, 9; 3rd: Aronian, 8; 4th: Anand, 6;
5th-6th: Vallejo-Pons, Karjakin, 4
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Francisco Vallejo-Pons
Levon Aronian ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Serjey Karjakin
1st-2nd: Caruana, Carlsen, 12;
3rd: Aronian, 9; 4th: Anand, 7;
5th: Karjakin, 5; 6th: Vallejo-Pons, 4
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Serjey Karjakin ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
Francisco Vallejo-Pons ½-½ Levon Aronian
1st-2nd: Caruana, Carlsen, 13;
3rd: Aronian, 10; 4th: Anand, 8;
5th: Karjakin, 6; 6th: Vallejo-Pons, 5
round #3 Carlsen V Karjakin. Carlson’s Rd5 blunder reminds me of Maurice Ashley’s theme about protected squares in his “What Grandmasters don’t see” DVDs. My computer played 46…Rxb2+ even when I set the computer to a 1725 elo emulation! Yet Karjakin plays 46…Rd8. If I were on their level, I think I would not only feel pressure about losing, but also about the embarassment that could come with post-mortem analysis when someone says I missed a 1700 level move!
It happens. While we all believe we would have seen that trick, it’s hard to know what happens to the mind when the pressure is so great. Alexander Kotov talked about “Deficiencies of Attention” in his class book “Think Like a Grandmaster”. Sometimes you get blind and miss squares. It was an instructive lesson.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Viswanathan Anand
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Levon Aronian
Serjey Karjakin 1-0 Francisco Vallejo-Pons
Standings
1st-2nd: Caruana, Carlsen, 16;
3rd: Aronian, 10; 4th: Karjakin, 9;
5th: Anand, 8; 6th: Vallejo-Pons, 5
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Serjey Karjakin
Levon Aronian ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Francisco Vallejo-Pons ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
Standings
1st-2nd: Caruana, Carlsen, 17;
3rd: Aronian, 11; 4th: Karjakin, 10;
5th: Anand, 9; 6th: Vallejo-Pons, 6
after 2-0 tiebreak win over Caruana!
VINTAGE CARLSEN!
Suddenly 2851 is a tournament away…!