The Bilbao Chess Masters Final (previously called the Grand Slam Chess Final) is an annual

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

which between 2008-12 brought together the strongest players from the previous year's "Grand Slam" events. Series organisers Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA) became defunct in 2012 due to the demise of the Grand Slam hosts and scheduling problems but the Bilbao Masters continued as an annual invitational event until 2016.

Grand Slam Chess Association

Negotiations between the organisers of major tournaments

M-Tel Masters Mtel Masters was an annual super-GM chess tournament held between 2005 and 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria, sponsored and organized by the Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel. The tournament was held as a double round-robin at the five-star Grand Ho ...

Tata Steel Chess Tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

(under the name Corus) and Linares began in March 2006, seeking to create a cycle of tournaments to raise the popularity of chess and attract increased sponsorship for major events. Several rounds of talks took place over the next 14 months. The GSCA was established on 17 January 2007 and the first edition of the series for 2008 announced in May, with Mexico City added to the list and Bilbao confirmed as Masters Final hosts. Due to problems raising funding for the tournament, it was announced on 16 May 2008 that Mexico City was cancelled. On 16 March 2009, the members of the GSCA Presidential Board was published, confirming the addition of Pearl Spring in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, China as Grand Slam hosts as well as interest from San Luis, Argentina and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The M-Tel Masters was held for the last time during this series. During the 2010 series, marking the last edition of Linares due to financial problems and the cancellation of M-Tel Masters due to the World Chess Championship, held in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

that year, it was agreed that Kings Tournament held in Medias,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

would join the 2011 edition. At the end of the 2012 edition of Tata Steel the rest of the 2012 series was confirmed and announced that the 2011 winners of Tal Memorial and London Chess Classic qualified for the 2012 Bilbao Final. This would be the last Grand Slam cycle, later editions composed of invitees by the Bilbao Masters organising committee. An ongoing problem was conflicting schedules between Grand Slam hosts and FIDE. For the 2013 series, invitees Carlsen and Anand declined spots in the Bilbao final due to their preparations for the World Championship.

Format and venue

The tournament is a

double round robin A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...

featuring four to six players. The tournament regulations use the Sofia Chess Rules, which forbids agreed draws before 30 moves, and the "Bilbao" scoring system of 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss (though for ratings purposes the traditional scoring method is used). The venue for the tournament has traditionally been the city of

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

in Spain. In year 2011 and 2012 a second venue was added as Sao Paulo in Brazil with one of the round-robins in each city. A soundproofed and air-conditioned glass "cube" was constructed to house the tournament, allowing spectators to watch closely the players inside.

Winners

Tournaments

1st Grand Slam Masters Final (2008)

The inaugural Final was composed of Tata Steel joint winners

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

and Levon Aronian, Linares winner Viswanathan Anand, M-Tel Masters winner Vassily Ivanchuk, M-Tel runner up

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by wi ...

and third placed Teimour Radjabov. Topalov convincingly won the tournament with 17 points, Carlsen beating Aronian to second place. Had Topalov lost to Ivanchuk and Carlsen defeated Anand in the last round, there would have been a tiebreak rapid match. Anand finished in last place ahead of his World Championship defence against Vladimir Kramnik. :

2nd Grand Slam Masters Final (2009)

The second Final consisted of

Sergey Karjakin Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, . (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (formerly representing Ukraine). A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, (until it was eventually taken ...

, the winner of 2009 Corus,

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates ...

, winner of Linares,

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

, winner in M-Tel Masters, and Aronian, second place at Pearl Spring, replacing Topalov who declined the invitation. Aronian emerged as the clear winner, winning the event with one round to spare. :

3rd Grand Slam Masters Final (2010)

The third edition featured four players and took place in the Alhóndiga Bilbao. It was a category 22 tournament, the highest rated tournament in history. Qualifiers for the Final were Carlsen (winner of Corus, Bazna Kings and Pearl Springs events) and Anand who was seeded through due to the cancellation of M-Tel Masters that year. Topalov had qualified as winner of Linares 2010 but withdrew from the Final. A tournament was held in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China consisting of Kramnik, Aronian, Shirov and Wang Hao in order to fill the two spots. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik - by defeating Aronian in an armageddon tie-break game - qualified. Kramnik then went on to win the Masters Final. : : :

4th Grand Slam Masters Final (2011)

In contrast to Grand Slam Masters Finals in the last years, the organizers decided to return to a six-player

without a special qualification tournament. The first half of the fourth edition was played in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

from September 25 to October 1, and the second in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

from October 5 to October 11. The players invited to the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 were Anand as second-place at Pearl Spring and the Tata Steel, Carlsen, as winner of Bazna and Pearl Spring,

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraFrancisco Vallejo Pons Francisco Vallejo, son of Ángel R. Vallejo Jiménez, military academy graduate in Law, and Felicidad Pons Gomila. He was born in Mahón, where the main hospital on the island of Menorca was located, but he has never lived there, but rather in E ...

. Carlsen dominated the Bilbao half of the 4th Final Masters and finished level with Ivanchuk who played so well in the first half. Carlsen won the event after defeating Ivanchuk in a blitz playoff 1.5-0.5. : :

5th Grand Slam Masters Final (2012)

The format was a six-player

. The first half of the fifth edition was played in

from September 24 to September 29, and the second in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

from October 8 to October 13. After Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana tied for first place a tiebreak match took place, Carlsen winning 2-0 : :

6th Grand Slam Masters Final (2013)

The sixth Grand Slam Chess Masters final was held on 7–12 October in Bilbao as a double round robin with four players. :

7th Grand Slam Masters Final (2014)

The seventh Grand Slam Chess Masters was held from 14–20 September in Bilbao as a double round robin with four players. Viswanathan Anand emerged as the winner. :

8th Grand Slam Masters Final (2015)

The eighth Masters tournament was held from 26 October to 1 November in Bilbao as a double round robin with four players.

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ran ...

won the tournament after beating Anish Giri in a tiebreak match (blitz playoff). : :

9th Grand Slam Masters Final (2016)

The ninth Bilbao Masters Final was held on 13–23 July as a six-player double round-robin with

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraAnish Giri,

and

Wei Yi Wei Yi (born 2 June 1999) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. Wei became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 8 months and 23 days, the 9th youngest in history. He is the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2700, accomplishing this feat ...

taking part. As in previous Bilbao Masters tournaments, the scoring was 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. The games between

and

were highly anticipated, as they would face off at the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

match in November; because

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

were not paired with each other in the 2016 Chess Olympiad, this was the last time the two played each other prior to the

match.

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraMagnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

for the first time in standard time controls in the first round and

defeated Anish Giri for the first time in standard time controls in the penultimate round. :

References

External links

Bilbao Chess Masters Final

Grand Slam Xadrez Final
{{Bilbao Chess Masters Finals Chess competitions Sport in Bilbao International sports competitions hosted by Spain Chess in Spain 2008 establishments in Spain Recurring sporting events established in 2008 2016 disestablishments in Spain Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2016