All are great players!!!!!!

Paco Vallejo will have hard times even playing at home !

Last time Vallejo wasn't first (or sixth) choice by the organizers but only joined the field when "noone else" was available:
"Andoni Madariaga, the Grand Slam General Secretary, explains the substitution process as follows: “Vallejo is, without doubt, a very attractive option, and we have been very lucky that he was able to accept, because the five other players in the top ten have unavoidable professional or personal commitments for those dates. Paco is the top Spanish speaking player in the world rankings."
http://www.bilbaomastersfinal.com/en/home/page/10/
[Kramnik and Karjakin had declined their invitations, so did apparently Topalov, Mamedyarov and Ponomariov]
This time, did they try to invite others? For example Radjabov based on his rating and results in Wijk aan Zee and Tal Memorial - Dominguez as the highest-rated Spanish-speaking player will play at the London Grand Prix.

good to see Anand playing tournaments again ! Also for a come back he wil have not an easy time with such a line up of youngsters !

"... top Spanish speaking player ..."
A curious reason for being invited, and even this one is probably not correct.
Weren't Anand and Topalov living in Spain? If so, they probably were the top Spanish speaking players.
They were referring to Spanish native speakers? In this case, I'm not sure about it, but being born in Menorca means a huge probability that his native language is Catalan, not Spanish.
Anyway, a bizarre explanation.

I wonder whether Ivanchuk might have gotten invited but declined the invitation ultimately because of the robbery that had happened to him last year in Sao Paulo - he was very frustrated about it since his wife couldn't travel with him because of a stolen passport, as far as I remember.

great setup, this will be a ''bloody'' tournament

Easy win for Anand as usual :-)

Karjakin has good chances here

Sadly, I think Anand will continue his slow slip down the ratings and probably only finish ahead of Vallejo. He struggled against Gelfand, who is lower ranked than all but one in this field. Seems a long time since his last big win in a tournament. Personally I'd love to be proven wrong.

very good lineup !!!

reeally nice ;)

only Vallejo Pons slightly off, but I dont think that he will be the point deliever either.

go go Carlsen !

Aronian will win thanks to Anand. If MC wants to win, Topalov must replace Vallejo.

Has any other World Champion scored 0-5 against an opponent while holding the title? Aronian even won four of those five against Anand with black.

A Grand Slam with six players is a bad joke. Imagine Wimbeldon with six players. What is that supposed to be? That is not a real competition. This is a form of inbreeding, which is keeping chess from becoming more popular.

Sorry to see Kramnik not playing. Neverthless, looking forward to seeing the games. Will be rooting for Anand - the old man in the pool!

This will be a great one, with so many strong players. We will see if Carlsen can continue his run of late, he is +6 =13 -0 in his last two events, has played 11 straight tournaments with a 2815+ performance rating, and is at his highest rating ever. Aronian is coming off a double gold medal performance at the Olympiad. Anand is World Champion, and Karjakin has handed Carlsen his only loss of the year. Caruana is one of the most active, fast-rising young players in the world, and Paco has demonstrated that on a good day, he can beat any of these guys. Looking forward to some great chess!

Aronian wins maybe .... but will have to deal with carmen. >>>

Karjakin UKR Fed. as we see on the table?

just don't see how anyone but carlsen could win this, hope i'm wrong and we see a close event, but I don't see aronian getting anything vs karjakin, caruana, and def not against magnus

To me Karjakin and Caruana are the two underestimated players in the poll. They are given as many votes as Vallejo, and the latter is as always bound to finish last in these types of events, he's done it 6-7 times in Linares and in the previous Grand Slam final.

Last time he had all the luck he has had for the last ten years amassed in one single event, and he still finished last with a very clear margin. Then Nakamura amazingly lost on time when he was clearly better, and Carlsen made one of the worst blunders of his life in a winning position. A more "normal" tournament for Vallejo here and he will have a very long way up to fifth place.

Karjakin and Caruana have both played well in very strong events and are players on a totally different level than Vallejo. I'm sure they will fight for the last place in the upper half together with Carlsen and Aronian.

Great line-up, of course. Aronian convinced a lot at the Oplympics, so he is my favourite. Vishy is a black box. Will he be drawing king again or will he be able to compete here?