DAY 6 – BILBAO CHESS 2014
14-20 September
FIVE-TIMES WORLD CHAMPION ANAND CONQUERS THE MASTERS FINAL FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH ONE ROUND TO GO
Today’s two draws in Ponomariov-Anand and Aronian-Vallejo make it impossible for Anand’s opponents to reach him in the last round
Sestao, Gros and Solvay won their respective matches today
Bilbao, 19 September 2014
DAY 6:
Masters Final Results
RUSLAN PONOMARIOV (Ukraine) – VISWANATHAN ANAND (India) 1-1 (2 h. 24’ – 37 moves)
LEVON ARONIAN (Armenia)- FRANCISCO VALLEJO (Spain) 1-1 ( 3h. 20’ – 41 moves)
Clasificación Final de Maestros de Bilbao 6ª Jornada:
1. Anand (India) 11 points
2. Aronian (Armenia) 7 points
3. Ponomariov(Ukraine) 5 points
4. Vallejo (Spain) 2 points
Five-times World Champion Viswanathan Anand from India won the 7th Bilbao Masters Final today with one round to go. He managed to do this by simply staying calm, blocking the attacks of his opponent, the local player Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), and signing a civilized draw. This point forced Aronian, last year’s winner, to win his game against Vallejo. However, the Armenian did not manage to get a real advantage with the white pieces, although he repeatedly tried to find a winning line. After tomorrow’s game between Anand and Aronian, the latter will pass on the “txapela” that he won in 2013 to the former, winner of 2014.
Surprisingly, it took Anand five editions to win the Masters Final, despite having won all the other best tournaments in the world, including five World Championships. He will play one more World Championship soon, against Magnus Carlsen, who won the title from him a few months ago.
With one last round to go, which will be played tomorrow, Anand heads the standings with 11 points, followed by Aronian (7), Ponomariov (5), and finally Vallejo (2).
At the European Club Cup, the big favorite Socar from Azerbaijan continued the winning streak they have maintained since round 1 and are already tasting the gold thanks to their victory today against their closest rival, Malakhite from Russia. Previously they had already defeated the other two favorites, Obiettivo Risarcimento from Italy and current European cup-holder G-Team Novy Bor from the Czech Republic. However, in tomorrow’s last round of Bilbao Chess 2014 Socar, with 10 points, could still be reached by SHSM from Russia, who have 8 points (overall victories score 2 points for the winning team and 0 points for the loser). For this to happen, Socar will have to lose their match and it would be up to the tie-breaks, but in chess everything is possible.
At the women’s European Club Cup, the Georgian club Batumi have already secured the title of European Champions after winning all their matches.
Regarding the Basque teams, Sestao Naturgas Energía got their third consecutive victory, this time against Schachgesellschaft Zurich. This victory could be expected given the difference in ranking between the team from Bizkaia (10th amongst the participating clubs) and their opponents, who were the 18th. With three victories, two draws, and one loss, Sestao occupies the middle spots on the standings and they can join the first ten in the last round, which was their goal at the beginning of the competition.
Gros from San Sebastian and Solvay from Cantabria have also won their respective matches. However, due to their bad results at the beginning of the competition, and because of the pairings system based on wins and losses the three of them lost many chances of joining the strongest group who is fighting for the title until tomorrow’s last round.
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They were afraid to invite Nakamura.