Added on 10/11/2011
Vassily Ivanachuk may have been the Samba King in the first leg of the Grand Slam Final in Sao Paulo, but it was World No.1 Magnus Carlsen who single handedly stopped the Ukrainian from one of his best tournament performances ever, as he dominated the second leg in Bilbao to snatch the title from the Ukrainian after an exciting playoff between the two.
The omens started to look bad for Ivanchuk after a second crushing defeat at the hands of Carlsen in the penultimate round that left both tied for the lead going into the final round. And when both drew their final round games, the odds firmly moved to Carlsen for the speed playoff to decide the title, which he duly won with ease after a crushing win in game two.
Carlsen's overall performance gained the Norwegian more Elo points to extend his lead over Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian at the top of the unofficial live rating list. World Champion Anand almost had the indignity of finishing in last place, but his tournament was salvaged somewhat in the final round by beating Francisco Vallejo to climb out of the cellar.
Spare a thought though for Hikaru Nakamura, who can only reflect on how costly his mea culpa of inexplicably failing to make the time-control in the penultimate round against Vallejo. Had he won against Vallejo, Nakamura would have been sharing the lead in the final round with Carlsen & Ivanchuk. Not only that, it would also have seen him overtake Sergey Karjakin in the top 10 world rankings.
All the best game highlights from the Sao Paulo/Bilbao Grand Slam Final can be found in GM Alex Yermolinsky's Game of the Day selections below (three of which are free for everyone to view) and you can also find daily video coverage from the Grand Slam Final from Macauley Peterson now on the ICC Facebook page by clicking here.
Chess.FM will be back on the air next month with live commentary coverage from the Tal Memorial running November 16-25 in Moscow - and what a stellar lineup that will be, with Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Nakamura, Gelfand, Svidler and Nepomniachtchi! Join ICC today by clicking here to reserve your ringside seat for all the best live commentary action from the Tal Memorial!
Game of the Day Date Host Members Preview Tue., 11 Oct., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Mon., 10 Oct., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Sat., 08 Oct., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Fri., 07 Oct., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Thu., 06 Oct., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Sat., 01 Oct., GM Miguel Illescas Illescas Fri., 30 Sept., GM Gregory Kaidanov Kaidanov Wed., 28 Sept., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Tue., 27 Sept., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Mon., 26 Sept., GM Alex Yermolinksy Sweere Final Standings N Name FED FIDE 1 2 3 4 5 6 PTS TPR 1 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2823 . 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 3 15 2843 2 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2765 0 0 . 1 3 3 1 3 1 3 0 15 2819 3 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2753 1 1 1 0 . 1 3 1 1 3 0 12 2785 4 Aronian, Levon ARM 2807 1 1 0 1 1 0 . 1 3 3 1 12 2774 5 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2817 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 . 3 3 12 2772 6 Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2716 3 0 0 3 0 3 0 1 0 0 . 10 268 (3-1-0 Scoring system) Trivia Winners Date ICC 1 month ICC 3 months NIC TRIVIA Mon., 26 Sept., dism AreYouSerious kerdlix Tue., 27 Sept., secondchance Russek Grant Wed., 28 Sept., Abel chesschallenged FecalTornado Fri., 30 Sept., Bort chesschallenged dsix sat., 01 Oct., trabiwa funkymunky loeksnokes Thu., 06 Oct., chinf MikeAngelo Parsifal62 Fri., 07 Oct., Abel dism jdalberg Sat., 08 Oct., am6414 Jonmeista saher Mon., 10 Oct., agent-n053 dism UnevenSeven Tue., 11 Oct., herrahuu BlkSabb samiralazawi Game of the Day Trivia! ICC presents the daily trivia contests, where each day an ICC member will win 1 and 3 month membership extensions. 'New in Chess' TRIVIA! ICC and New in Chess present ' New in Chess' Trivia Contest, where each day an ICC member will win a 1 year subscription to NIC!