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Vallejo produces a great surprise defeating leader Ivanchuk and keeping excitement alive |
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Saturday, 08 October 2011 10:44 |
 Spain's Francisco Vallejo has produced the biggest surprise of the Chess Grand Slam Masters Final being held at the Alhóndiga Bilbao, defeating current leader Vassily Ivanchuk in a very tight endgame.
With Vallejo’s victory, the competition’s excitement is renewed, since if he had won the Ukrainian would have practically sealed his triumph at the Final.
The other two matches which saw Levon Aronian (with white) come up against Magnus Carlsen (with black) and Viswanathan Anand (white) versus Hikaru Nakamura (black) both ended in draws.
The results of this second day have caused the group that was trailing the leaderboard (the four that today have drawn their respective matches) to reduce Ivanchuk's lead by one point, leaving the title up for grabs with three days left, since thanks to the "Bilbao rules" wins are awarded with 3 points.
Therefore the scoreboard is still topped by Vassily Ivanchuk with 13 points. After his defeat today he is followed in a four-way tie for second by Nakamura, Carlsen, Anand and Aronian, with 8, narrowing his lead by one point. Trailing the scoreboard is Francisco Vallejo, with 7, who with his win today has put himself back in the tournament.
Round 7 video
Vallejo's victory over Ivanhuk is the second big surprise of the Final. The first also starred the Spaniard when he beat current world number one, Carlsen, in the first leg played in Sao Paulo.
Photo-gallery of the 7th round by Manu de Alba
Round 8 pairings:
Vassily Ivanchuk - Viswanathan Anand
Hikaru Nakamura - Levon Aronian
Magnus Carlsen - Francisco Vallejo
Live games with GM commentary and computer analysis
Official website
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