5th Chess Masters Final in Sao Paulo, Bilbao with Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, Karjakin, Vallejo, Caruana!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

Five of the eight best chess players in the world will compete in the 5th edition of the Chess Masters Final to be held in Sao Paulo and Bilbao from September 24 to 29.

These include reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, World No. 2 Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Paco Vallejo.

Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic capital, will host the first half of the tournament from September 24 to 29. The second and deciding half will be played in Bilbao from October 8 to 13. Sao Paulo and Bilbao will, this year, once again host the Grand Slam Chess Masters Final, making both cities for the second consecutive year the world Chess capitals. The tournament will be played via a double half-robin league. The Brazilian megalopolis will host the first half from September 24 to 29 and the second and defining half will be played in Bilbao from October 8 to 13.


The last edition of the Grand Slam masters Final, first shared by Sao Paulo and Bilbao (the championship's fixed venue) was held from September 25 to October 1 in Brazil and October 5 to 11 in the Biscayan capital. Norway's Magnus Carlsen, number 1 in the world chess rankings, walked away with the title of champion on that occasion.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Also see her personal blog at
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Paco Vallejo wins first Bahia Feliz chess tournament

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everyone,

GM Paco Vallejo of Spain has won the first Bahia Feliz tournament on the Gran Canaria island, but not without some drama happening in the last round! He was undefeated for eight rounds but lost his last game with the white pieces. Just the right opportunity for the second-placed 14-year-old Grandmaster Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine) to catch up. But the latter lost too. So Paco Vallejo won the tournament with a clear 6/9. 

The first Bahia Feliz GM tournament was held May 12-21 in Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands (also known as ‘Canaries’ or Canarias in Spanish). The group of seven islands and six islets is located just off the north-west coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. Gran Canaria is the third largest, after Tenerife and Fuerteventura.

The tournament took place in the Hotel Orquidea of the Bahia Feliz resort, on the south coast of the island. It was a 10-player, single round robin with quite an interesting field of players: Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain), Julio Granda Zuniga (Peru), Markus Ragger (Austria), Henrique Mecking (Brazil), Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine), Gerald Hertneck (Germany), Stefan Bromberger (Germany), Stefan Kindermann (Germany), Ramon Mateo (Dominican Republic) and Sabrina Vega Gutierrez (Spain).

The tournament was sponsored by Roman Krulich, a chess player himself but also partner of the Munich Academy of Chess and the founder of the Munich Chess Foundation. 

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From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com