Weekly Article: Carlsen Dominates in Bilbao

Carlsen Dominates in Bilbao: Week 8 [Inaccurate]  -  October 11, 2011

Magnus Carlsen dominated the Bilbao half of the 4th Final Masters and finished with a pairing against Vassily Ivanchuk. Before his match with the renowned grandmaster, Carlsen battled against Hikaru Nakamura. Their game finished in a draw [1/2 - 1/2]. Other than Carlsen's match with Nakamura, Ivanchuk drew with Aronian and Viswanathan beat Francisco Vallejo Pons. All but Vallejo will move onto the Tal Memorial on November 16th.

Here are the Round Ten Final Standings:

Carlsen, Ivanchuk - 15 points

Nakamura, Aronian, Anand - 12 points

Vallejo - 10 points

After his much deserved win at Bilbao, Magnus Carlsen celebrated on Twitter:

"So happy to have won the tournament. In the end, I always believed I would come back. And many thanks to all who supported me!"

Aside from Carlsen, there were a couple of great performances... Vassily Ivanchuk played a fine but uneven tournament. Of course the events in Sao Paulo couldn't have helped, so let us all congratulate him on his chess. 

Hikaru Nakamura played an exciting tournament. His probable work with Garry Kasparov will certainly enhance his gameplay... Choosing not to participate in the US Championships was a bold decision. It will certainly be exciting to watch this man play in future tournaments. Kudos to Nakamura!

Levon Aronian played a less exceptional tourney, yet an amazing one nonetheless. The tournament was definitely not his best, but his win against Viswanathan Anand was a great match to look through. 

Match Walkthrough: Hikaru Nakamura [2753] against Magnus Carlsen [2823] - [1/2 - 1/2] 

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 O-O 7.e3 b6 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Bxe7 Qxe7 10.Nxd5 exd5 11.Qb3 Be6 12.Rc1 Rc8 13.Bd3 c5 14.Qa3 Kf8 15.dxc5 bxc5 16.Bb5 Nd7 17.Bxd7 Bxd7 18.O-O a5 19.Rfd1 Be6 20.Rc3 a4 21.h3 Rab8 22.Rd2 Rb4 23.Rdc2 c4!

24.b3 axb3 25.axb3 Rbb8 26.Qxe7+ Kxe7 27.bxc4 Rxc4 28.Nd2 Rxc3 29.Rxc3 d4!

30.exd4 Rb4 31.Rd3 Kd6 32.Nf3 Bd5 33.Kh2 Be4 34.Ra3 f6 35.Ra6+ Ke7 36.Ra7+ Kf8 37.Rd7 Bc6 38.Rd6 Bxf3 39.gxf3 Ke7 40.Rd5 Ke6 41.Rd8 Ke7 42.Rd5 Ke6 43.Rd8 Ke7 1/2 - 1/2 

Match Walkthrough: Vassily Ivanchuk [2765] against Magnus Carlsen [2823] - [0 - 1] 

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Be3 Qe7 6.Bxc6 bxc6 7.Bxc5 Qxc5 8.Nc3 O-O 9.O-O Rb8 10.Qd2 Qe7 11.b3 c5

12.h3 d6 13.Nh2 Nh5 14.Nd5 Qd8 15.Rae1 Be6 16.Nc3 f5 17.exf5 Bxf5 18.f3 Bg6 19.Rf2 Qh4 20.Nd5 Rf7 21.Qc3 c6 22.Ne3 Nf4 23.Qd2 Rbf8 24.Nd1 h5 25.Nc3 Bf5 26.Ne2 Ne6 27.Qe3 Rf6 28.Kh1 Rg6 29.Rg1 Nc7 30.Rgf1 Nd5 31.Qd2 Rgf6

32.Nc3

32.Nf4 33.Ne4 Rg6 34.Rg1

34.Qd8 35.Nf1

35.Qe7 36.Nfg3 d5 37.Nxf5 Rxf5 38.Nc3 Qh4 39.Kh2 Qg3+ 0-1