text: He then participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters preliminary tournament in Shanghai from 3 to 8 September, where he faced world number four Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov, and Wang Hao; the top two scorers qualified for the Grand Slam final supertournament from 9 to 15 October in Bilbao against Carlsen and Anand. Scoring 3/6, Kramnik tied for second place with Aronian behind the winner Shirov's 4½/6. In the blitz playoff, Kramnik defeated Aronian to qualify along with Shirov for the Grand Slam final.
  Shortly after qualifying for the last stage of the Grand Slam, Kramnik played on board one for the Russian team in the 2010 Olympiad. He scored +2–0=7.
  Following the Olympiad, Kramnik participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters final in Bilbao where he competed against Anand, Carlsen and Shirov. The average rating of the field was 2789, the highest in history. After defeating world number one Carlsen for the second consecutive time, and then Shirov in his first two games, Kramnik drew his final four games to finish in clear first with 4/6. This gave Kramnik the distinction of having won the two strongest tournaments in chess history.
  Kramnik's attempt to defend his 2009 title at the Tal Memorial in Moscow ended with a 7th place, while he finished 5th in the London Chess Classic in England.