Vallejo Beats Ivanchuk In Bilbao
Today was round seven of the Grand Slam Masters in Bilbao, and last placed Vallejo Pons shocked Vassily Ivanchuk to keep the race for the title alive.
The Spaniard played well and took full advantage of Ivanchuk's time trouble to earn his second win of the competition.
Hikaru Nakamura demonstrated his skill and maturity to hold world champion Vishy Anand to a draw with an accurately played Berlin, while Lev Aronian could make no impression on Magnus Carlsen's QGD.
So Vassily Ivanchuk's lead at the top narrows, but only by a point. His rivals need to start winning some games in the remaining three rounds if they are to have any chance of catching him.
The standings after seven rounds (3-1-0 scoring):
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2765 | 13 |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2823 | 8 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2753 | 8 |
| Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2817 | 8 |
| Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2807 | 8 |
| Vallejo Pons, Francisco | ESP | 2716 | 7 |
The games in Bilbao start at 17:00 local time in Bilbao (15:00 UTC), apart from the last round which will start an hour earlier.
Sofia-Rules are in operation, meaning that players can only reach a draw by mutual agreement if they have the permission of the arbiter. The 3-1-0 soccer-style scoring system is also being used. The time control is 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 60 minutes to a finish, with a 10 second increment after move 40.
If there is a tie for first place, there will be a pair of blitz games, followed by a sudden death game if needed, to produce a winner. Ties for lower places will be decided by mathematical tie-breaks, starting with scores under the traditional 1-½-0 system.
