DAY 1 – BILBAO CHESS 2014
ANAND TAKES THE LEAD AT THE BILBAO MASTERS FINAL BY DEFEATING PONOMARIOV AT THE STAR GAME OF THE FIRST DAY BETWEEN THE TWO FORMER WORLD CHAMPIONS
At the European Club Cup, the two favorites easily defeated their inferior rivals thanks to the pairing system of the first round
VIDEOS:
Opening Ceremony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5V28rddPiw
Round 1
Aronian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9tnkNYifZU
Vallejo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9loUIfkrC8
Manuel Bosboom (who beat Leko) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVaOcDbG220
Alexei Shirov (in Spanish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u_TZVF53Jc
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfvT_-idml8
Vishy Anand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_udLt10e24c
DAY 1 MAIN RESULTS:
Bilbao Masters Final 2014
Bilbao Masters Final results
VISWANATHAN ANAND (India) – RUSLAN PONOMARIOV (Ukraine) 3-0 (4 h. 54 m.) (55 moves)
FRANCISCO VALLEJO (Spain) – LEVON ARONIAN (Armenia) 1-1 (3h.03 m.-43 moves).
Bilbao Masters Final standings after Day 1:
1. Anand (india) 3 points
2. Aronian (Armenia) and Vallejo (Spain) 1 point
3. Ponomariov 0 points
European Club Cup 2014
European Club Cup 2014 (Open) Results
SOCAR (Azerbaijan) – SK Team Viking (Sweden) 5,5-0,5
KSK Rochade Eupen – Kelmis (Belgium) – Obiettivo Risarcimento (Italy) 0-6
Malakhite (Russia) – En Passant (The Netherlands) 5-1
Sestao (Spain) – Cercle d’Echecs Fontainois (Belgium) 3 -3
White Rose (England) – Gros (Spain) 4,5 – 1,5
Viswanathan Anand from India got his first victory in Bilbao Masters Final 2014 in the star game of the first day of Bilbao Chess 2014 against Ruslan Ponomariov from Ukraine, the other former World Champion participating in the tournament. In the other game of the Final, Francisco Vallejo from Spain drew Armenian Levon Aronian, winner of the tournament in 2013.
At the European Club Cup, which is being held simultaneously with the Masters Final, the favorites easily won their matches against inferior clubs thanks to the pairing system of the first round, according to which the strongest teams face the weakest.
In this period of preparation before the rematch for the World Championship against Magnus Carlsen, five-times World Champion Anand defeated Ponomariov with white, despite the hard fight that the youngest former World Champion in history put up during almost five hours.
A faster result was obtained in the other game of the Final between the Spanish Champion Paco Vallejo (white) and twice Olympic Champion Levon Aronian, who drew their game. At some point it looked like the player from Menorca could surprise us by winning the game, but Aronian managed to stop the offensive and draw the game in a little bit less than three hours.
In the European Cup, the big favorites Socar (Azerbaijan), Obiettivo Risarcimento (Italy) and Malakhite (Russia) won their respective matches. It was to be expected, and in fact they even saved some of their best players, such as Caruana, playing for Obiettivo Risarcimento, and Topalov, playing for Socar.
The Basque teams weren’t both as lucky. Gros from San Sebastian beat White Rose (England) 4.5 – 1.5, whereas Sestao drew 3-3 against a theoretically inferior rival, Cercle d’Echecs Fontainois (Belgium).
Whereas the Masters Final is ruled by a special points system (equal to that of soccer: 3 points per victory, 1 per draw, 0 per lost game), each of the six games per team of every European Cup round scores 1 point per victory, 0.5 points per draw, and 0 points per lost game.
Bilbao mayor Ibon Areso executed the first move of Day 1 at the European Club Cup and Chess Masters Final. This joint chess event brings together nine of the ten best players in the world, it will be held during the whole week at the Euskalduna Barria Congress Centre, and it has more than 400 participants coming from 30 different European countries.
Participating in these two events in Bilbao will be Caruana (world #2), Aronian (#3), Grischuk (#4), Topalov (#5), Anand (#6), Karjakin (#7), Nakamura (#8), Vachier-Lagrave (#9), and Mamedyarov (#10). The only Top 10 player missing will be world #1 and current World Champion Magnus Carlsen (also twice winner of the Masters Final), who refused to play this year in order to prepare well for the World Championship rematch against Anand.
For further information:
www.europeanchessclubcup2014.com
Nakamura is #1.