Karjakin officially in the Bilbao Final Masters 2011
Levon Aronian also confirmed for the Grand Slam Final
The organizers of Bilbao Final Masters 2011 have confirmed that Sergey Karjakin is officially invited for the final of the Grand Slam, that will take in Sao Paulo and Bilbao. With that addition the tournament is on track for an absolute record – looking at the 2700 live rating list the Final Masters has number 1 Magnus Carlsen, number 2 Vishy Anand, number 3 Levon Aronian, number 4 Sergey Karjakin, and number 6 Hikaru Nakamura.
With only the final spot left to decide, the organizers say, “We have 5 of the top 6 rated players in the world for the Final Masters in Bilbao and Sao Paulo. We will wait for the official July 2011 FIDE rating list to announce the last player to join the Grand Slam.” With that hint we can only speculate that this will be number 5 Vladimir Kramnik or the highest rated junior Fabiano Caruana who is currently playing convincing chess in AAI Grandmaster event.
One more thing that is confirmed for the Bilbao and Sao Paulo Grand Slam Final – Chessdom.com will have extensive coverage with daily live commentary led by the 2700 club member GM Arkadij Naiditsch, additional Stockfish analysis will be available at the Chessdom / Chessbomb platform, while you can watch daily videos from the event here.
I thought there are only 4 players in the field?
Love Caruana, but Kramnik deserves the spot. Caruana’s day will come.