Karjakin finishes sole first at the Norway Chess Tournament

Chessdom reports: Karjakin finishes sole first at the Norway Chess Tournament.



[player]Sergey Karjakin[/player] finished half a point ahead of the world number 1, challenger to the crown, and host country player [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player].

Sao Paolo-Bilbao Masters 2012 Update: Caruana Leads at the End of First Leg

[caption id="attachment_1128" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Photo credit: www.bilbaomastersfinal.com[/caption]

With 3 wins and 2 draws, [player]Fabiano Caruana[/player] leads the pack of 6 top players in the [event]Sao Paolo-Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012[/event]. He started the campaign with a win in Round 1 against [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player] (replay game here), followed by two more wins against [player]Sergey Karjakin[/player] and [player]Francisco Vallejo Pons[/player] in Rounds 2 and 4, respectively.

Grandmasters can play ball

Photo by Albert Silver, Chessbase

It is but on rare occasions we get to see Grandmasters playing sports other than chess.

Participants of the [event]Sao Paolo-Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012[/event] dressed up in rubber shoes and jerseys to play basketball the day before the opening ceremony. In the picture above you'll see [player]Levon Aronian[/player] tries to get past the defense of [player]Sergey Karjakin[/player] while [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player] waits in the background.

More photos in the Chessbase website.

Sao Paolo - Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012

The Grand Slam this year will be held again in Sao Paolo in [country]Brazil[/country] and Bilbao in [country]Spain[/country]. It won't be a grand slam if it were not participated by the heavy weights in the world of chess:

• [player]Viswanathan Anand[/player], [country]India[/country], current World Champiion;


• [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player], [country]Norway[/country], currently the world's No. 1 in ELO Rating;


• [player]Levon Aronian[/player], [country]Armenia[/country], world's No. 2 and member of the champion team in the Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiad;


• [player]Sergey Karjakin[/player], [country]Russia[/country], world's No. 7;


• [player]Fabiano Caruana[/player], [country]Italy[/country], world's No. 8; and


• [player]Francisco Vallejo Pons[/player], [country]Spain[/country], the pride of one of the host countries of this tournament.

The first round-robin matches will happen in Sao Paolo from September 24 to 29, while the final rounds in Bilbao from October 8 to 13, 2012. Check out the website.

ChessHive will bring you the updates about this grand event, so stay tuned.