GRAND SLAM

The first Chess Grand Slam Final took place in Bilbao in September 2008. Silvio Danailov, the manager of Veselin Topalov,  was the prime mover of the Grand Slam concept and somehow made it work despite many trials. It was a six-player double round robin event, one of the strongest in the history of the game, a category 21. The Bilbao Final Masters have the winners of the other four Grand Slam tournaments: Corus, Linares Mtel Masters (2008-2009), Pearl Spring Chess Tournament in Nanjing (2009). Three points for a win and one for a draw rules are in effect. The total prize fund of the Final Masters in Bilbao in 2008 was 400.000 Euros. Veselin Topalov finished clear first ahead of  Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Teimur Radjabov and Vishy Anand. The 2nd edition of the Grand Slam Masters Final started with a prize fund of 110.000 Euros. The winners of the Nanching Pearl Spring, Corus-Wijk aan Zee, Ciudad de Linares and Mtel Masters-Sofia tournaments were due play in the final. However at the last minute Veselin Topalov has withdrawn and been replaced with Levon Aronian. The tournament was a triumph for Levon Aronian who, although he started with a loss to Alexander Grischuk, had wrapped things up by the end of Round 5 with four wins on the bounce. The shortened tournament was a triumph for the organisers with battling chess, 7 of the 12 games were decisive. In the 2010 event organized in a sound-proof glass cube in the Plaza Nueva of Bilbao, Vladimir Kramnik has emerged the Champion of the 3rd Grand Slam Chess Masters Final. He edged the World Champion Viswanathan Anand by half point in the final standing. Magnus Carlsen finished a disappointing tournament in third position after losing two games  to Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand.