Sao Paulo & Bilbao 2011 Chess Masters Final Victory!
Evidently there was a lot of nerve in the last round Tuesday. I was reasonably happy to avoid too much risk especially as co-leader Ivanchuk did not seem to play as ambitiously as earlier in the tournament. We both drew our opponents in about 2,5 hours.
While we waiting for the tie-break games to start (to be broadcast live on local TV), Anand won against Vallejo to climb to shared 3rd & 5th with Nakamura (3rd on tie-break) and Aronian (4th).
In the first blitz play-off game against Ivanchuk I was white and enjoyed a pleasant position in the middle game. It looked very promising at one point but I lost the thread and the ending resulted in a logical draw.
In the second game Ivanchuk played an unusual variation in the opening and continued to play very quickly but too passively. I managed to build up a king side attack and still had some time left on the clock. After some reshuffling of pieces and a few inaccuracies from Ivanchuk the attack went through!
My first Grand Slam Final victory! (I placed 2nd in 2008 and 3rd last year.)
I have thoroughly enjoyed the stay in Brazil (one week in Rio and one in Sao Paulo) and in Bilbao. My heartfelt thanks to the Sao Paulo and Bilbao organizers for a great category 22 event staged in fantastic cities!
Today I'm off to Stockholm for a TV show (Skavlan) and Saturday I?m giving a simul in Ålgård outside Stavanger on the Norwegian west-coast.
My next big tournament is Tal Memorial in Moscow starting November 16th.
Magnus Carlsen, October 13th, 2011