Bilbao 2011 Line-up Revealed
The line-up for the Bilbao Final Chess Masters has been revealed.
For a while it seemed that the organisers might manage to secure the participation of the top 6 players in the world, but unfortunately that hasn't happened.
Sergey Karjakin has pulled out citing an "overload of tournaments and training sessions", while defending champion Vladimir Kramnik also declined his invitation due to other commitments.
Despite these disappointments, the organisers have found worthy replacements in the form of Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) and Francisco Vallejo Pons.
The full confirmed line-up:
| Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2821 |
| Viswanathan Anand | IND | 2817 |
| Levon Aronian | ARM | 2805 |
| Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2770 |
| Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 2768 |
| Francisco Vallejo Pons |
ESP | 2724 |
The tournament format is a double round-robin. This year's event will be split into two halves: the first from 25 Sept - 1 Oct in São Paulo, Brazil and the second in Bilbao, Spain from 5 - 11 October.
The announcement of the line-up is available at the official website (announcement in Spanish only).
