Lest any post-Sinquefield Cup withdrawal set in, we now have the Bilbao Masters coming up. It will be a 4 player double round robin starring Aronian, Anand, Ponomariov, and Vallejo. Anand and Aronian are certainly the favorites, but don't be shocked if Ponomariov or Vallejo wins. The player to watch? Anand. His victory in the Candidates Tournament was very impressive; in 14 games against the best in the world, he was never in any serious danger of losing. He hasn't played in any tournaments at classical time controls since then, so we will want to see if he can continue to perform at this level. If he can, Carlsen will have a much more difficult task in their rematch for the World Championship.
Almost all of the remaining elite players will be participating in the European Chess Club Cup. That will also be held in Bilbao, but I don't have any predictions for it; as discussed in my post about the Olympiad, team events pose some special difficulties for forecasting.
As usual, the fact that players can tie for first implies that the numbers in the first column sum to more than 100%.
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