Bilbao Grand Slam 2012 Announced

Press Release

Bilbao will once again be the world chess capital in September and October 2012

 The dates for the 5th edition of the Chess Grand Slam Masters Final have already been decided. The tournament, considered one of the world's most prestigious, will take place from September 24 to October 13, 2012 and, as in previous editions, the world's top-ranked players will participate, according to an announcement from the Bilbao e4 Chess Club, organizers of this renowned sporting event.

Just as in previous years, Bilbao will once again host the 5th edition of the Chess Masters Final, and simultaneous negotiations are being held with five of the world's main capitals to share the hosting of the 2012 tournament. This is what happened in the last two editions. In 2010 Bilbao was joint host along with Shanghai and in the last edition which took place this year, it was the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo that hosted the event along with the Biscayan capital.

Regardless of the outcome, the tournament will continue to be played by the double round-robin league system among six of the most prominent world chess masters chosen from among the winners of the world's foremost chess tournaments.

Magnus Carlsen accepting the Bilbao Chess Masters Trophy in 2011

Two persons have already qualified - Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Russian Vladimir Kramnik (the former being number 1 in the world ranking and winner of the last edition of the Grand Slam Final and the latter, former world champion and winner of the 2010 Final). Both have received direct invitations to Bilbao, the Norwegian for his victory in the Tal tournament in Moscow and the Russian for his win at the London Classic this very December.

Vladimir Kramnik won the 2011 London Chess Classic

The rest of the participants of this great chess event in the Biscayan capital, also receiving direct invitations, will come out of the winners of the 2012 Tata tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, the 2012 Kings tournament in Bazna, Romania and the City of Linares in Spain (once it is concluded before August 24).

If the same player wins more than one tournament, the highest-ranked second place finisher from one of these tournaments according to the July 2012 list will be awarded a spot. If all the second-place finishers have already earned spots in the 2012 Masters Final by other means, the Organizing Committee will decide who gets the spot by direct invitation.

The winner of the World Championship duel, which will be played between Anand and Gelfand next may in Moscow, will also receive a direct invitation for the 2012 Masters Final.

From this most rigorous qualifying and selection system will therefore emerge the six contenders for the 5th edition of the Chess Grand Slam masters Final, whose goal, according to its Organizing Committee, is to continue to maintain excellence in terms of the quality of organization as well as the high level of sporting competitiveness of previous editions.

Bilbao, December 26, 2011

Source: Chess Today