Magnus Carlsen

Last week Magnus returned from the ECC in Turkey. He played 3^rd table (after Anand and Svidler) for top-ranked Baden-Baden from Germany.
Neither Magnus nor his team were entirely satisfied with the result. Baden-Baden ended 4^th and Magnus scored 4,5/7  (versus an expected score 4,6). Not a bad result for Magnus who chalked a fine win against L.Fressinet in the last round. He was also pleased with his opposite-bishop-ending against Almasi although it was a theoretical draw at one point. The 5^th round draw (with white against IM Cornette) and 6^th round loss against GM Sutovsky reduced a potential excellent result to a normal one. 

After two days in school Magnus headed off to Bilbao in Spain for the strong blindfold double round robin this week.
We flew via Madrid accompanied by a journalist and a photographer from Aftenposten, the (in my opinion) main Norwegian newspaper.
The Bilbao airport is situated about 15 minutes outside the city center and midway, on the surrounding hills, we got a first impression of the picturesque valley in which Bilbao is located.  After a short sightseeing along the river Nervion we arrived safely at the elegant Sheraton hotel which is also the playing venue.

Magnus is rated as no 2 after Topalov but ahead of the by far best female player in the world J.Polgar, Hungary, his 17-year old rival S.Karjakin, Ukraine, and promising 21 year olds X.Bu, China and P.Harikrisna, India. Certainly a young and interesting field. 
Magnus is optimistic about his chances and is certainly going for 1st place!

Today a reception was held in the beautiful Arabic room in the Bilbao town hall, and after opening remarks from the organisor and the municipality representative, P.Harikrisna demonstrated blindfold with a few moves and an early draw against (non-blindfolded) former World Champion Boris Spassky. 

On our way back we chose the walk along the river and passed the impressive Guggenheimer museum for modern art and look forward to a visit inside. The whole centre around the river is spanned with new buildings and impressive architecture. 

This afternoon there is a players meeting, and tomorrow at 18:30 there is the opening ceremony followed by round 1 where Magnus faces P.Harikrisna. 

Henrik Carlsen
Bilbao, October 15th