Aronian Wins Bilbao Grand Slam

In high level chess tournaments -- especially short ones -- it's rare for someone to clinch first place before the final round even begins. Yet Levon Aronian did just that this past week in Bilbao, where he had already won the Bilbao Grand Slam Masters after the penultimate 5th round. Aronian rounded out his tournament by drawing Sergey Karjakin in the final round, easily coasting to victory.

In Bilbao, an alternate scoring system was used, in which players were awarded 3 points for a win, and 1 point for a draw. The system was designed to encourage fighting play, and it seems to have worked; of the 12 tournament games, seven were decisive, a very high percentage for such a strong tournament. Aronian finished with 13 points; under a more traditional scoring system, he would have scored 4.5/6. No other player finished above even, with Karjakin and and Alexander Grischuk both losing as many games as they won. On Bilbao scoring, however, Grischuk finished second with 8 points, due to having two wins and two losses (versus one win and one loss for Karjakin). Alexei Shirov finished last with 3 points, failing to win a game and drawing just three.

This is just the latest victory in a great year for Aronian, who is closing in on Viswanathan Anand for the #2 spot on the FIDE rating list. Aronian is also on top of the standings for the FIDE Grand Prix, and has clinched a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. At just 26, Aronian is entering his prime years as a chess player. If he keeps up his current form, he should be a factor in World Championship discussions for many years to come.

Here's one of Aronian's wins from Bilbao: the round five victory over Shirov which clinched first place.

Bilbao Grand Slam Masters
White: Levon Aronian
Black: Alexei Shirov

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.0-0 Nb6 7.b3 Bd6 8.Bb2 0-0 9.d3 Bg4 10.h3 Bh5 11.Nbd2 Qe7 12.Ne4 f5 13.Nxd6 cxd6 14.b4 Nxb4 15.Qb3+ N4d5 16.Nxe5 dxe5 17.Bxd5+ Nxd5 18.Qxd5+ Kh8 19.Rfe1 Rae8 20.Rac1 f4 21.g4 Bf7 22.Qe4 Bg6 23.Qg2 Qf7 24.Rc5 Qxa2 25.Rb5 b6 26.Ra1 Qf7 27.Rxe5 Qb3 28.Rxe8 Rxe8 29.Bd4 Qb4 30.Qd5 Qe7 31.Rc1 h6 32.Qf3 Qd6 33.Bb2 Kh7 34.Rc4 b5 35.Rc6 Qb4 36.Bc3 Qe7 37.Qxf4 Rf8 38.Qe3 Qf7 39.Be5 Re8 40.f4 Qd7 41.Qc5 Qe7 42.Rc7 Qxc5+ 43.Rxc5 1-0