The Grand Slam Chess Masters Final was held in Sao Paulo and Bilbao on September 24-29 and October 8-13 as a six-player double round-robin event.
After all three games of the last 10th round ended in draws, the last year winner Magnus Carlsen and Italian star Fabiano Caruana shared the first place with 17 points each (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw).
The two proceeded to play a two-game blitz tie-break to determine the champion. Carlsen won 2-0 and claimed the trophy, a Basque txapela, for the second year in a row.
Magnus Carlsen with the trophies
Carlsen and Caruana ready for the blitz tie-break
Replay the games with computer analysis
Spanish player Paco Vallejo announced after the penultimate round that he will retire from competitive chess. He was very upset after the painful loss against Karjakin. We sincerely hope that the talented player and great person will reconsider once again and return to the chess arena.
Final standings:
1-2. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana – 17 points
3. Levon Aronian – 11
4. Sergei Karjakin – 10
5. Viswanathan Anand – 9
6. Francisco Vallejo – 6
Bilbao Final Masters 2012 - Group Photo
Blitz tiebreak in progress
Audience gathered around the glass cube
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