Three Points For Winner At Bilbao
By Arvind Aaron

The Bilbao Grand Slam Final from Sep 2-13 will see the winner of each game awarded three points and one point for a draw. The message is clear to discourage draws. Purist can even see the end of interesting draws vanish from the game soon if this trend spreads to other events.

World champion Viswanathan Anand is one of the six players in this double all-play-all. His main rival will be Vassily Ivanchuk, Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian.

The prize money is Euro 400,000 (Rs.2.80 Crores) and the winner takes home Euro 150,000. The venue is Bilbao in Spain. Time control is simple to understand, 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and a further 60 minutes for the rest of the game. Organisers are trying to revolutionise chess. The players will play outdoor in a soundproof glass case.

Home                                                            Published on 02^nd July, 2008