Carlsen blunders, Ivanchuk shines

Ivanchuk against Anand (official site)
Vassily Ivanchuk patiently nurtured his pawn advantage against Viswanathan Anand, whereas Magnus Carlsen blundered a piece. So Vassily Ivanchuk is the sole leader and Francisco Vallejo Pons is off the bottom. In the other game, Hikaru Nakamura was too solid for Levon Aronian, who made no real progress, and so the American continues his run of draws.

Here are the results from the third round:

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Viswanathan Anand  IND 2817 0-1 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 Spanish Schliemann
Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 1-0  Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 Modern Opening
Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 Slav/Grünfeld 

So the three 2800+ players only managed 0.5/3 against their lower-rated counterparts.

The tournament table takes into account the Sofia rules: 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, but the traditional scoring system can be found in brackets.

Rank Name Country Rating 1w 1b 2w 2b 3w 3b 4w 4b 5w 5b 6w 6b Points
1 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 * * . . . ½ 1 . . . . 1 7 (2½)
2 Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 . . * * ½ . 1 . . ½ . . 5 (2)
3 Hikaru Nakamura USA 2753 ½ . . ½ * * . . . . ½ . 3 (1½)
4 Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 . 0 . 0 . . * * 1 . . . 3 (1)
5-6 Magnus Carlsen  NOR 2823 . . ½ . . . . 0 * * . ½ 2 (1)
5-6 Viswanathan Anand IND 2817 0 . . . . ½ . . ½ . * * 2 (1)

The top two in the world find themselves sharing the wooden spoon!

As a reminder, here is what happened in the earlier rounds:

First round

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Levon Aronian ARM 2807 1-0 Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 Slav Defence
Viswanathan Anand IND 2817 ½-½  Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 Spanish Berlin
Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 Keres Defence

Second round

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 1-0 Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 English Opening
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 ½-½  Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 Spanish with d3
Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 ½-½ Viswanathan Anand  IND 2817 Semi-Slav, Botvinnik

The official site for additional information www.bilbaofinalmasters.com and live games.

Note these times if you want to follow the live games:

3pm Sao Paulo

8pm (Paris)

7pm (London)

10pm (Moscow)

2pm (New York)

10am (Los Angeles)

4am (Sydney)


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