The third round of the Sao Paulo- Bilbao Grand Slam saw a statistical oddity. The world no:1 Magnus Carlsen and no:2 Viswanathan Anand both lost, to Paco Vallejo and Vassily Ivanchuk respectively. Under Bilbao scoring, the Ukrainian GM (+2,=1) leads with 7 points. Levon Aronyan (+1,=2) is in second with 5.
The current leader, Ivanchuk, has always been acknowledged as a genius and consistently in the top 5 since the early 1990s. He's a universal stylist, with a wide, deep repertoire His nerves have often let him down in critical situations. In an odd way, crossing the 40s divide might have helped him calm down and thus, led to more stability in his play.
The two-city format for the Slam is experimental but interesting. It's been used most often for world title qualifiers and then, Linares started the concept of partner cities for big tournaments. It puts less pressure on sponsors hosting a double RR.
But it does require physical and mental adjustments for players. Quite apart from issues like jet lag, etc., little changes in environment, playing times and associated routines can upset people. Such changes are inevitable when cities are swapped half-way through the event and this can lead to apparently inexplicable shifts in form.
Anand was gradually outplayed from an equal position. Ivanchuk can do that to anyone when he's on song and he produced deadly accuracy once he got the edge. Carlsen had a much more painful experience. The Norwegian GM pressed for a win against Vallejo, who is rated lowest at 2716 among the 6. Unfortunately for him, Carlsen missed a clear win and then, he made a huge blunder. So Paco took over.
At the Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (Carlsen VS Vallejo, Sao Paulo- Bilbao Grand Slam 2011). Black has a forced win. There's an old saying - "three pieces equal mate" and black must activate his rook and bishop
Carlsen played 25.-- Qe1+ 26.Kh2 Qxe4? The win is 26...Rd3! 27.Qc2 Be5+ 28.g3 Bxg3+ or 27. Ne3 Qxf2 28. Ng4 Qg3+ 29. Kh1 h5 30. Nh2 Rd2 31. Qg1 Bd4! Play continued 27.Qc2 Be5+ 28.g3 Rd3 ?! Carlsen blogged that 28. --Qf3 is still winning. Now he hallucinates with 29.Ne3 h5 30.Nc4 Qd5?? 31.Nxe5 Rd2 32.Qc5! Qxc5. Black just hasn't enough for the Kt. The conclusion 33.Rxc5 Rxf2+ 34.Kg1 Rxb2 35.Rxc7 Rb3 36.Kg2 Rxa3 37.Nxf7 a4 38.Ra7 Ra1 39.Ne5 g5 40.g4 hxg4 41.hxg4 a3 42.Nf3 (1-0).