In the Grand Slam Masters FInal Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nalamura narrowed the gap with tournament leader Vassily Ivanchuk to 3 points on Saturday in Bilbao, Spain. Carlsen beat Francisco Vallejo, while Nakamura won against Levon Aronian. Ivanchuk drew with Vishy Anand. Sunday is a rest day.

A huge crowd, bigger than on any day in 2010, had gathered on Saturday

Round 8

After the rest day (Sunday) the Masters Final tournament will have a great finale: on Monday, with White, Magnus Carlsen plays against Vassily Ivanchuk, who after the 8th round is just 3 points ahead of the Norwegian. Hikaru Nakamura also has chances to become the leader in the next round when he plays tail-ender Francisco Vallejo. Virtually without chances for victory, Anand and Aronian play each other on Monday.

But first round 7, when Vallejo played well again. From a Slav, the Spaniard reached an ending that was about equal, but then he took a poisoned pawn on g2 and suddenly he lost a piece.

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Carlsen waiting for his opponent to resign, Nakamura watching along

Nakamura played an impressive game against Aronian. From a Queen's Gambit Declined with 5.Bf4 and 7.g4 (the way Botvinnik and Kasparov used to play it!) he kept a small advantage into the ending. Perhaps Aronian could have drawn it somewhere but it wasn't easy and Nakamura showed fine technique.

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The two endings that both will finish in '1-0' still in progress

Ivanchuk played a good game against the World Champion. In a well-known line of the Queen's Indian the Ukrainian kept a small advantage into a knight ending, but Anand was never in real danger.

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During the rest day some of the players will do a showcooking in restaurante Yandiola with the cook Ricardo Pérez - they'll prepare special dishes of the famous brand Angulas Aguinaga with angulas (eels), pulpo (octopus) and mejillones (mussels).

Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 | Schedule & results