'WhiteWash' In Round 4 Of Grand Slam Final

A thrilling round at the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao saw white win on all boards on an amazing day.

First to finish was Veselin Topalov (pictured) who brushed aside World Champion Vishy Anand in a mere 25 moves.  Not the sort of experience that the popular Indian will have wanted in his last serious event before his match with Vladimir Kramnik in October.  Topalov's victory was down to some excellent opening preparation and Vishy had no answer at the board.

Next to taste victory was Magnus Carlsen who beat Teimour Radjabov in a fierce battle.  Radjabov played with fire by playing Carlsen's pet Dragon against him, but in a fantastic struggle that saw both players in time-trouble, it was Carlsen's attack that crashed through to end the contest.

An extra bonus for Carlsen is that as a result of his win and Anand's loss, he is - for now at least - the top rated player in the world on the live rating list.  Congratulations Magnus!

Finally, Lev Aronian benefited from some endgame errors from Vassily Ivanchuk to win their game and complete a hat-trick of white wins in the round.

The standings after round 4 (win=3 points, draw=1, loss=0):