Magnus Carlsen

The arrival of the players for round 1 was slightly delayed by a fire in a house just outside the Plaza Nueva. But around 5PM the players entered the finished class cube and the Bilbao Mayor duly opened the game Anand - Ivanchuk.



The spectators crowded to see the players and games live and monitors provided good coverage on a distance and for people enjoying a coffee nearby or participating in the daily blitz event just outside the cube.



As Magnus was black against Aronian he somewhat surprisingly faced 1.c4 and after some traditional theory moves Aronian played the unusual 6.Nd2. Black is all right but Magnus later consider his 9....Rb8 somewhat dubious and Aronian was able to but a knight (and subsequently his queen) on d6 blocking the d7-pawn.
It looks a bit nasty for black but Magnus never felt his position was critical as he could develop his pieces on the queen side and even had a slight advantage in development.
Aronian continued to play aggressive and sacrificed the b2-pawn to strengthen the tight-lock of d6. He might have won an exchange for two pawns and reach an unbalanced position but maybe he was hoping for an advantage in the continuation. As it went black was more than okey and when Aronian missed the best continuation in the queen and rook ending Magnus was able to secure a decisive advantage.
He convincingly found the critical continuation 31....Rd1! and later exchanged rooks to reach a winning queen ending. Short on time he had to watch out for some traps before the time control. Later he consistently chose safe solutions leading to a win by first advancing the a-pawn and then giving it up for the f-pawn and a mating attack. 

 

The software had been well prepared and after Aronian resigned we saw the Bilbao score 0-3 appear immediately!



In the mandatory after-the-game-interviews Aronian impressed by his calm and smiling appearance despite his loss. Commentators Leontxo Garcia and Susan Polgar (speaking fluently Spanish) covers the event onsite with interesting comments and great interviews.

 For some time black looked more than okey in all three games today but in the end the other games where drawn. Radjabov-Topalov was played out till bare kings after the arbiter had turned down a draw agreement in the double rook + 4 pawns ending.
In Anand-Ivanchuk, the latter won back his sacked pawn in the Marshall attack and put pressure on Anand throughout most of the game. Ivanchuk was a pawn up in the queen + rook ending but did not manage to find a winning continuation and was fortunate to get a draw from Anand (and the arbiter) with only seconds left on the clock in the end. (Great sportsmanship by Anand!)

Magnus consequently has had an absolutely excellent start and is sole leader before round 2 where he will face Ivanchuk with the black pieces. Magnus has an impressive score against Ivanchuk in classical chess but the latter has showed a fantastic form lately. We may look forward to a hard fight and an interesting game.

Lastly some words of praise to the organisers who is staging this great tournament which. They show a lot of enthusiasm, the high-profile, high-quality tournament is good for chess specators and it is good for the top chess players. 
Round 1 went smoothly and everything seemed to work well technically.
The audience obviously enjoyed the show and we all look forward to the continuation. Thank you! 

Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 3, 2008