Bilbao R6: Carlsen defeats Aronian, leads in Masters 09.09.2008– A convincing victory by the player of the year, Magnus Carlsen, brought the young Norwegian to the top of the scoreboard according to the Bilbao system (a win counts for three points, a draw for one). Veselin Topalov, the leader after the first half, is now in second place, after a tough draw against Teimour Radjabov. In the unofficial "Live Ratings" Magnus now leads by six points. Round six report.
Grand
Slam Chess Final Masters Bilbao
The Chess Grand Slam Final is being staged in Bilbao, Spain, from September
1st to 13th 2008. It is a six-player double round robin event, one of the strongest
in the history of the game (at least by Elo average, 2775.6, making it a category
22 tournament). Games start at 17:00h local time (CEST). The scoring system
in this tournament is different and experimental. Players get three points for
a win, one point for a draw and zero points for losing a game. For rating purposes
the traditional 1-½-0 system will be used. The prize fund for the event
is 400,000 Euros, with the winner receiving €150,000, the second place
€70,000, etc. with the 6th player getting €30,000. The sums are unprecedented
for an event like this. Only World Championships have exceeded the amount.
A few notes on the strength and category of this tournament
Peter Ballard of Adelaide, Australia draws our attention to
the fact that Bilbao is not category 22! "The average rating is 2769, which
is category 21. It's only Category 22 if you use the 'Live Ratings', which are
totally unofficial. At the very least you should make it clear that it's only
Cat 22 if you use the unofficial 'Live Ratings'."
Graeme Cree of Austin, TX, writes: "Your coverage of
this tournament describes it as a Category 22 event. It is not. It's Category
21. It only becomes Category 22 if we rely on unofficial live rankings again.
FIDE does not do that, and it's not even clear that they should. Updating official
ratings after each event would be a good idea, but doing it after each round
seems like a bit much. That's debatable, of course, but at least let's do it
one way or the other. Having FIDE call it 21 and the press call it 22 is hopelessly
confusing."
Jorge Rivera of Grovetown, GA, USA, writes: "It would
be good if you do an investigation about the strongest tournaments ever rating-wise.
Can you run an article about this? I would love to read it. Thanks!"
We are collecting information on the strongest tournaments ever played. The
1938 AVRO tournament comes to mind, where eight of the world's top players took
part: World Champion Alexander Alekhine, former champions José Raúl
Capablanca and Max Euwe, and potential challengers Mikhail Botvinnik, Paul Keres,
Reuben Fine, Samuel Reshevsky and Salo Flohr. Or take the following more recent
tournament:
Interestingly four of the Bilbao players were participants, albeit with lower
pre-inflation ratings. If we are not mistaken they were 1–6 on the FIDE
rating list at the time. We hope our readers will be able to shed a more focussed
light on the question. Please use "Strongest tournaments" as the subject
line of any feedback you send us.
Vishy Anand vs Vassily Ivanchuk in round six of the Final Chess Masters
Ivanchuk-Anand was a staid draw, with Ivanchuk making a token
effort to gain advantage and Anand thwarting this effectively for a 32-move
draw.
Veselin Topalov and Teimour Radjabov at the start of a marathon game
Topalov-Radjabov was more volatile, with the Bulgarian GM
looking set to chalk up another victory in Bilbao. But after massive trade-offs
after the time control Black had solved all his problems and in fact undertook
some tentative attempts to play for a win. The draw came with a repetition at
move 73.
White has sacrificed a pawn, which is part of theory, but now Magnus Carlsen
uncorks a novelty which involves sacrificing a second one: 15.d5!!?
The only previous game we could find was Gelfand,B-Kramnik,V, Mexico City 2007,
which continued 15.Qa4 Bb4 16.Ba3 Nd5 17.e4 Nb6 18.Qb3 Qe7 19.Rab1 Bxa3 20.Qxb6
Bb4 21.Ne1 0-0 22.Nc2 Rfd8 23.Nxb4 axb4 24.Qxb4 Qxb4 25.Rxb4 Ba6 26.Bxa6 draw.
15...Nxd5 16.Ne5 Nf6 17.Qa4 Bb4 18.Nxc6 Bxc6 19.Qxc6+ Ke7.
The novelty, which is sure to be subjected to CAT scans in the near future,
has vindicated itself already in this game. Aronian's king is stuck in the middle
and White, now just one pawn down, has a blistering attack. 20.Rfd1
Rc8 21.Qf3 Qb6 22.Bd4 Qb8 23.Ba6 Rcd8 24.Bb7 h5 25.h3 h4 26.Rab1 e5
27.Rxb4! axb4? This is suicidal. 27...exd4 was the move to
play if Black believed he could fight on. 28.Bc5+ Ke6 29.Ra1 Rd6 30.Bxd6
Kxd6 31.Qc6+ Ke7 32.Ra8
Can you imagine how this must feel? Of course Black is completely lost. 32...Qd6
33.Qxd6+ Kxd6 34.Rxh8 b3 35.Ba6 Nd7 36.Rxh4 Nc5 1-0.
All pictures by Nadja Woisin in Bilbao
Bilbao scores
Player
games
wins
draws
losses
points
Magnus Carlsen
6
3
2
1
11
Veselin Topalov
6
2
4
0
10
Levon Aronian
6
1
3
2
6
Vishy Anand
6
0
5
1
5
Teimur Radjabov
6
0
5
1
5
Vassily Ivanchuk
6
0
5
1
5
Traditional scores (for rating purposes)
In the Live Ratings Magnus Carlsen
remains in first place and has increased his lead over Vishy Anand to almost
six points. Astonishingly all this is being achieved while he is still suffering
from the Moscow bug, which a visit to the Town Hall doctor, which took place
earlier today, will hopefully alleviate. Anyone else reminded of Bolt winning
the 100 meters with an untied shoe?
Video reports and interviews by Europe Echecs
These reports are being produced by Vijay Kumar for the French chess magazine
Europe Echecs
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
the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access.
You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.