Grischuk increases lead in Bilbao
7 September 2009, 21.56 CET | Last modified: 11:12 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
After two rounds Alexander Grischuk is still on a 100% score at the Grand Slam Final. Today he defeated Alexei Shirov with the white pieces, to reach 6/2 in the football system that’s applied in Bilbao. After his loss of yesterday, Levon Aronian scored an easy win against Sergey Karjakin and is now on 3/2.
The 2nd Grand Slam Masters Final takes place September 6-12 in Bilbao, Spain. It’s a 4-player, double round-robin with Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Sergei Karjakin and Alexei Shirov. The prize fund is € 110,000.
The rate of play is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 60 minutes to finish the game, with 10 extra seconds per move from move number 41. Like last year, the Masters Final will use both the “Sofia Rule” and the “football” scoring system: players will get 3 points for winning a game, 1 point for drawing and 0 points for losing.
Round 2
It must be a very comfortable feeling to realize that, playing two games in a glass cube, you have actually collected six points on the leaderboard. That’s the case for Alexander Grischuk, who drew number one at the drawing of lots on Saturday which meant he could start the tournament with two White games.
The Russian profited optimally from this slight advantage by defeating both Aronian and Shirov. In the second round his advantage out of the opening, which almost directly led to an ending, was very small, but enough to keep Shirov busy for several hours. It’s not easy to say at which point the ending turned from bad into lost, but taking the pawn on g2 is probably a mistake.
The glass cube already looks too big this year with just two boards inside, but yesterday one of those was already empty after about two hours. Sergey Karjakin had a bad day and simply played far below is normal level. In bad shape, with Black against Aronian, you know you’ll get into trouble.
The game had started with an ancient line of the Nimzo-Indian (Rubinstein variation) which pops up games like Tal-Gipslis, Donner-Portisch and Gligoric-Unzicker when browsing through the database. Aronian came up with an interesting novelty, but it doesn’t look terribly dangerous actually. It was a bit of a surprise that Karjakin went for an ending that was clearly better for White, allowing a rook on the seventh. Just a few more inaccurate moves and the game was over.
Round 2 games
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Bilbao Grand Slam Final Masters 2009 | Schedule & results
Grischuk also tries to remember the old Nimzo line
Shirov, perhaps listening to Leontxo Garcia's commentary? (As we've understood, just like last year, sometimes the players can hear sounds from outside)
Daily blitz tournaments next to the glass cube
All photos by Manu de Alba courtesy of the official website
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Grischuk is in great shape adn Aronian is recovered well. Shirov seems a rollercoaster and Karjiakin does not look very strong in under his new flag.
What is the deal with this tournament? Shirov playing consecutive games with black pieces and Grischuk playing two games with white. I think that is odd!
Mauricio, it’s simple: with four players some have to play two consecutive games with the same color. But as it’s a double round robin, everyone will have the same number of whites and blacks in the end. Seems they changed the order of games in the second half of the tournament (see schedule above) to avoid that anyone plays three games in a row with the same color?
Indeed, Grischuk is in a great shape! But look at the rate of draws so far. Only one draw… that shows that all of them are ready to fight. It’s a short event, yet nonetheless it will be exiting. Beaten players will certainly bounce back and give another fight for three points!
Thank you Thomas, It just took you 15 minutes to answer!!!
Keep up the good work
Thank you, Thomas!
thank you chessvibes for posting the standings in classical format as well. please continue to do that!
@CAL Daniel: I agree, but for the time being the scoring system used doesn’t change the order of players. Nor does it change the ELO performances ,:) .
People saying that Grishuk is in great shape……… Look at the man.. All white and skinny. Looks he is serious ill.
Whatever his play is good.!
gr