Bilbao 08: All games drawn, Caruana and Carlsen lead

São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final

Round eight report

Inside "the glass cube", at the start of round eight

Arbiter Elisabeta Polihroniade and TD Juan Carlos Fernández watch the round start

The first game to finish was the encounter between Sergei Kariakin and Magnus Carlsen. The 7.Qg4 0-0 line of the Winawer French often leads to sharp play, but this time it produced a colorless draw after 35 moves. Kariakin had a small plus during most of the game, but no more than that. Finally, he liquidated to an ending with opposite-color bishops and two useless rooks on both sides. The draw was sealed a few moves later.

Italian GM Fabiano Caruana drew his black game against the World Champion

Vishy Anand, the World Champion, tried his 3.f3 anti-Grunfeld weapon on Fabiano Caruana. It was the same weapon that nearly gave him success in the 3rd game of the recent World Championship match against Boris Gelfand. Unfortunately, the Italian avoided the entertaining line that was seen in that game. Then the players exchanged queens and showed some top GM technique to agree for a draw on move 45.

The encounter between Francisco Vallejo Pons and Levon Aronian was entirely different. The Armenian played with Black and opted for a provocatively passive version of Modern Defence. It looked like Aronian deliberately invited the opponent’s wild attack in the hope that Vallejo would go astray and be punished for his mistakes. In fact, Vallejo committed one inaccuracy and his advantage disappeared. But he was never in any danger of losing. Simultaneously, the Spaniard showed imagination and courage that made the game highly spectacular.

Replay all games of the round

Game of the day

Daniel King's Play of the Day: Paco Vallejo Pons - Levon Aronian

Player portraits

Francisco Vallejo Pons – The High-Risk Artist

The best Spanish-born chess player, Paco Vallejo, under-18 world champion in 2000, won his first medal at age of nine. Silver in the 1991 Under-10 world championship in Milwaukee (USA). He placed in the top ten in eleven of the fourteen World or European Championships which he played at different ages. Today at 30, he takes a lot of risk, creates beauty and at times defeats the stars.

His precocity was always extraordinary. He learned the moves on his own at five, watching games his family played. His chessboard and his baby bottle are his earliest memories. “It was an unstoppable passion,” he stresses. The Marcote de Mondariz School in Pontevedra awarded him a scholarship at eleven years of age, with an exclusive trainer, grandmaster Zenón Franco. His study plan allowed him to combine school and chess training daily. His parents suffered. “The separation was painful; we only saw him during holidays. But we recognize it was a privilege,” they recalled.

After being proclaimed World U18 champion in Oropesa del Mar (Castellón), Vallejo made an important decision. “I will be a chess professional, but I am not prepared to undertake ten-hour training sessions daily. I want to enjoy life.” From that moment on his progression was not as fast as Spanish fans had wanted, despite three world champions (Kasparov, Anand and Topalov) making, independently, the same statement: ”Vallejo has enough talent to be at least in the top ten”. At last, in 2009, he broke the 2700 rating barrier and made a good impression at Linares 2010 – for his creativity and bravery.

Since then he has moved between 25th and 50th in the world, but he is still at an age where he can make a great leap if he desires and is ready to work for it. In the 2011 Grand Slam Final he managed to win games against Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Nakamura. It is no surprise the the organization chose to invite him again..

Leontxo García

Traditional crosstable after eight rounds

Bilbao crosstable after eight rounds

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All 2012 São Paulo/Bilbao reports All games in PGN 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Copyright ChessBase