Original Article on the – Bilbao Chess Masters Final 2011 can be found on William’s site, which includes some additional stuff.
Vassily Ivanchuk is has been one of the world’s best players for 2 decades, and yet he is only getting better in 2011 as shown in his exemplary performance in the 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final. The 42 year-old Ukranian is really hitting his stride, coming off a 3rd place finish at the 2011 World Chess Cup (which automatically qualifies him for the 2012 World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament) to arrive in impeccable form at the Bilbao Chess Masters Final in Sao Paolo. Ivanchuk began the tournament with a fighting draw as black against Nakamura in round 1, and went on to dominate an out-of-form Vallejo in round 2. Things got interesting in round 3, as Ivanchuk took the black pieces against the current World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. Anand opened with the Ruy Lopez, and was greeted with a nice surprise – the Schliemann Defense. It seemed that Anand’s preparation against this line was lacking, as he consumed ample time in the opening and did not achieve a very good position for the middlegame. Anand proceeded to sacrifice a pawn with 22. e5! and was able to generate dangerous counterplay against black’s king, however Ivanchuk steadfastly defended and was able to convert this extra pawn with fantastic technique – forcing Anand’s resignation with 69. …Kf7. Ivanchuk currently leads the tournament with 7 points (2 wins, 1 draw), with Aronian trailing at 5 points (1 win, 2 draws).
Magnus Carlsen and Viswananthan Anand share last place after 3 round
Magnus Carlsen is the highest rated chess player in the world at 2823 FIDE. Viswanathan Anand is the current World Chess Champion and the second highest-rated player in the world at 2817 FIDE. The only title these guys are fighting for at the 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final is last place. The words of Garry Kasparov might well be ringing in Carlsen’s head, as Kasparov spurned the prodigy for his lack of work ethic shortly after the two discontinued their training sessions. It’s not totally unreasonable that Carlsen is having a tough tournament, as he has been playing absolutely out of his mind the last two years and it is extremely difficult to maintain that type of domination over today’s world of chess. Anand on the other hand is a different story. The World Chess Champion recently has largely abstained from tournament play, preferring to focus his energy on his family and preparing for his upcoming World Title Defense against a very determined Boris Gelfand. It is certainly understandable that Anand does not want to play too much before the World Chess Championship Match, so as to avoid giving away his preparation. I am disappointed in Anand’s play at the 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final, as the World Chess Champion has played totally uninspired chess. In round 1 he agreed to an insipid draw against Carlsen in a boring line as white against the Berlin Defense. In round 2 Anand achieved a draw as black against a pressing Nakamura, and in round 3 he lost to Ivanchuk (pgn above). Anand is infamous for his cool-headedness in desperate times, and I believe the chess world will see him bounce back with a vengeance in the rest of the tournament.
Magnus Carlsen: Can he live up to the hype?
Magnus Carlsen is one of the most natural and pure chess talents I have studied. His game mixes iron logic with flawless technique, not to mention he calculates better than most computers. After drawing Anand in round 1 with a tame line in the Berlin Defense, Carlsen was able to achieve considerable pressure against Aronian in round 2 however the Armenia was able to pull out the draw in 56 moves after a difficult defense. In round 3, Carlsen was paired up with Francisco Vallejo – who had lost his first two games and appeared significantly out of form. Vallejo’s play in round 3 was definitely not impressive, as he looked very content with a draw out of a passive opening. Carlsen achieved considerable pressure with a pawn sacrifice, and seemed to have the slightly better side of a double-edged ending when he inexplicably blundered a piece 30. …Qd5?? and threw the game away. Vallejo converted the win shortly thereafter, claiming victory in 42 moves. Carlsen has been playing pretty well thus far at the 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final, however I will definitely expect him to play much more aggressively to attempt to catch back up in the rest of the tournament.
Original Article on the – Bilbao Chess Masters Final 2011 can be found on William’s site, which includes some additional stuff.
Follow William for fresh daily updates: Follow @OnlineChessLessWilliam Stewart is a National Master. He specializes in Online Chess Coaching and maintains a daily updated Chess Blog
Carlsen is tired from his travel.
Bizarre article. It’s a cat-22 tournament and the guys “fighting for last place” have 2 draws and a loss so far with many more games to play. Those results aren’t horrible, just slightly below par; they just look worse because of the 3-1-0 scoring system. Either one of them can still easily win it.
I recorded my visit to the Grand Slam Masters Final in Ibirapuera Park (São Paulo), in a post at my blog ‘Celebrate Chess’.
“As well as wanting to see the superstars in person, I was also pretty desperate to play some OTB games as my chess these days is exclusively played online. So I enrolled for a couple of tournaments (21 min games) which were organised alongside the main event …”