What’s the biggest surprise so far in the 1st half of the Sao Paulo – Bilbao Grand Slam?
Will Carlsen be on a tear after his 1st win? Can Anand or Aronian put on a big show in the 2nd half? Which Ivanchuk will we see in Bilbao? Can Nakamura dominate the elite? Can Vallejo make a strong stance? What do you think?
Standings at the half
| # | Player | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vasily Ivanchuk | 10 |
| 2 | Hikaru Nakamura | 7 |
| 3 | Levon Aronian | 6 |
| – | Viswanathan Anand | 6 |
| – | Magnus Carlsen | 6 |
| 6 | Francisco Vallejo | 3 |
Bilbao Rule: Win 3 points, Draw 1 point, Loss 0 points.
Official website: http://www.bilbaomastersfinal.com/en/
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Nakamura will win this by 2 points.
H Bomb will beat Ivodkachuk with Black
and Some 2800 player(s) will also beat Invodkachuk
Everyone will beat the Spaniard
Hbomb and the 2800s draw the rest
HBomb wins with 16 pts
Carlson makes some more childlike lame excuses
H bomb remarks about Carlson’s lake of courage and heads off to London
I’m rooting for the underdog (Vallejo), but as he’s rated ~100 points lower than everyone else, it’ll be tough for him. Really impressed with Chucky so far, I think he has good chances of winning this one. 🙂
Nakamura is the class of the field. If he keeps his head together , he will rak up points quickly. It’s his tournament to lose.
Actually anyone can win this with the 3 point win scoring in effect. Of course, that’s a long shot for Vallejo, but if someone gets hot, it’s up for grabs.
Good scoring scheme…lights a fire under everyone. No one can coast.
If Nakamura can continue to play as solidly as he did in the first half, he will finish well, but almost anyone but Vallejo is a threat to win. It will be interesting to see whether Ivanchuk plays steadily in the second half after his loss.
It really isn’t a big surprise, but notice that the 3-1-0 scoring method puts the players in the same order as the normal scoring method.
One surprise is that there aren’t supposed to be any draws except by threefold repetition, stalemate, etc, yet (1) most of the draws appear to be by agreement and (2) at least half of the draws by threefold repetition appear that they just repeated moves to make a draw by threefold repetition.
The odds are in favour of risk taking as the difference between winning and drawing is double that of losing and drawing. At 2800+ level, if players do not mind risky complications unmindful of the outcome of the game, the rewards are high. Besides, youth gives mental stamina to wade through complications. This is not the attitude of classical players like Aronian,Ivanchuk & Anand.
In view of this, Carlsen stands the best chance to win with further scores like +3+1+0+3+1.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well,Anand’s play will depend on his priority but he will have absolute control of what he does.
Based On points : Anand may go on, for out right win of all the second half games,then wait for the score board to decide the winner.
“Anand” has all skills to accomplish this tournament successfully.
“Anand” is a perfect sport and has perfect balance.
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]
Reply to jMac
It is not the same. Supposing any of the 3 players on 6 points, Anand, Aronian or Carlsen win a game an Ivanchuk loses a game, in conventional scoring they will be on 3.5 score (equal); but now with this scoring Ivanchuk will still lead by a point. And any 1 of the 3 losing and Vallejo winning another game, though they lose only 2 games against Vallejo 4, they will be on equal score, ie., 6 points.