Bilbao Set For A Thrilling Finish!

Recent Chess.com news articles about the Chess Masters Final in Bilbao have led to healthy debate in the comments about what it means to be the "best" player in the world.

Magnus Carlsen is ranked #1 on the FIDE rating list, but Vishy Anand still holds the title of World Chess Champion.

Today they clashed over the board in Bilbao and it was the Norwegian who came out on top, thereby inflicting Anand's first defeat of the competition.

But despite this win, Magnus still has a real fight on his hands to win the tournament after Fabiano Caruana defeated world #2 ranked Lev Aronian to keep pace at the top of the standings.

Carlsen and Caruana share first place going into the final round tomorrow.

In the other pairing, Paco Vallejo looked to have gained an advantage against Sergey Karjakin, but the poor Spaniard blundered as the time control approached and lost the game.

The pairings for the final round are Vallejo v Caruana, Aronian v Carlsen, and Anand v Karjakin.

The standings after 9 rounds (3-1-0 scoring)

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Who's the Best? The world #1 and the World Champion face off in Bilbao.

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If two players tie for first they will play a blitz match immediately after the last round finishes. They will play two games at the rate of 4 minutes plus 3 seconds increment, alternating colors. If this match is tied, they will play an Armageddon (sudden death) game where White will have 5 minutes and Black 4. In the case of a draw Black wins first place.

The final round on 13th October starts half an hour earlier at 16:30 local time (14:30 UTC).

The tournament uses the "Sofia" anti-draw rules, meaning that players can only draw by mutual agreement with the permission of the arbiter. The "Bilbao" scoring system (3-1-0) is also in use.

Games via TWIC. Photo from the Bilbao Masters official website.