2003 City of Linares Tournament

Much as expected, the crowning of this year's champion in Linares would have to wait until the end of the last round! Yesterday's eventful round saw Kasparov not managing to win against Vallejo with white, leaving him ½ a point off the lead and quite unhappy. Peter Leko, after beating Anand, changed places with him again at the top. With Kramnik who drew Radjabov, and Leko at 6.5/11 followed by Kasparov and Anand at 6/11 all eyes are of course on the 2 mega-matches of the day: Kramnik - Leko and Anand - Kasparov.

Poster of a documentary about last years event

Writing this editorial before the start of the round, there is only one thing known for sure: Even in case of a shared first place, based on the tie-break system here in Linares, the winner is going to be either Kramnik or Leko, regardless of today's results. Here is why: Obviously if Kramnik or Leko win today, it would mean an outright, unshared victory. If they draw and Kasparov wins, Leko would win because he has more wins in the event. If Anand wins, Leko still wins, because while both he and Vishy would have 4 wins each, he would have more wins with the black pieces (winning round 1 versus Radjabov) while all of Anand's wins are with white.

Looking at the cross table we see how close this event really was. The maximal margin between first and last place cannot exceed 3 points. 4.5 for last, 7.5 at the most for first. It won't be unfair to say that Kasparov, Kramnik, Leko and Anand were in it to win it all the way to the end, while Ponomariov, Vallejo and Radjabov had it a bit more difficult but often holding their own. Not one player this year is winless and only Kramnik is undefeated.

It is very nice to see Leko with the most decisive games! Often criticized for many draws, Peter had half of his games ending decisively - 4 wins and 2 losses. He showed an awesome fighting spirit and stamina when some of his games were the last to finish, at the very end of the final time control.

Vishy Anand must be disappointed somewhat mainly because his two most obvious misses (Both in drawish Rook endings) came against Leko and Kasparov and could have made all the difference for him. Still, his 3 wins were quite convincing - almost easy looking.

Vladimir Kramnik who was a bit ill in Linares had a typically stable tournament. 2 wins and no losses, never really in any grave danger and ever so solid, he proved that Corus was just a rust-scraping warm up and he is back to activity.

Communications command center (left)

Communications command center (right)

For the man at the top of the rating lists, Garry Kasparov, Linares 2003 was a lot less kind than previous editions. His sensational loss against Radjabov in round 2 took a large toll on him and while he made a valiant effort in the middle, beating Anand and Ponomariov to get back to the thick of things, he couldn't pick up enough wind to win the event.

After a disastrous start, it was clear that FIDE champ Ruslan Ponomariov was not going to have his success from last year repeated here. With only one win against Vallejo, Pono couldn't duplicate his strong 6.5/12 in 2002 and has some work to do on his openings if he is to survive his upcoming match against Kasparov in June.

The local favorite son, Paco Vallejo promised last year to come back stronger for this year's event. Maybe he didn't succeed points wise but he did show once again he is elite-material and not really out of place in such a tournament. His impressive win against Leko left him with hunger for more and I will risk saying that next year he will surpass his score.

The Benjamin of the tournament, Teimour Radjabov has a lot to be happy about. At 15 he is already a VIP club member - having played in Corus and Linares and with an invitation to Dortmund in July. His minus 3 finish didn't replicate his Corus success but he did provide the main headline here by knocking off the big guy in round 2! Swimming with the big fishies at such an early age is a great experience for the Azeri GM and for now at least, the sky's the limit for him.

The 2003 Ciudad de Linares was a great one - Many decisive games, more than last year, exciting upsets, many interesting games, important novelties and hot battles of the world's crème de la crème gave us all joy and enrichment. Time and again, despite of a few relaxed days the media center was in consensus that we were getting more than our money's worth. Next year's version already has some pretty big shoes to fit into!

GM Radjabov at the press conference

Till then: Au revoir!

A small mention: In the middle of the last round, Radjabov was giving a press conference where he spoke of his experience and his appreciation to the importance of opening preparation at this high level. He mentioned his confidence in getting to the very top and his wishes of leading a normal life as much as he could. He mentioned wanting to go to the university and study, perhaps law ("I think I prefer to be a defense attorney and leave the aggression for the attack for chess.") I asked him about his busy chess schedule (European individual championship and Dortmund) and about the chess life in Azerbaijan, which now has 4 youngsters in the list of top 20 world juniors but most notable was his answer to a journalist's question that went something like: "Do you intend to remain and play on ICC as Velimirovich and Ubiyca?" Teimour says: "Yes! I like it." He did of course mention the importance of having an optical mouse when playing!

Last chance chess time!:

Kramnik - Leko: 

GM Kramnik vs GM Leko

A 3…e5 3 Knight Sicilian was Vlady's cautious choice today. The line however double edged is quite risk free for white but also maybe not the most promising of lines. Leko deviated first with his 14…Nxd5 tactic. Somehow this was never played before, maybe since white maintains a slight pull and black is defending a bit. It reminded a bit the game that Leko beat Vishy in yesterday but here today defending it, Peter was at his best. Strongly resisting any effort he was never in risk of losing, and Kramnik was extremely cautious in his attempts. At move 16.Rad1 Leko took a lot of time deciding on his plan but later time was never a factor. Kramnik avoided a move repetition with his 21.c3, but that double R ending with B was only cosmetically better for white. Soon the B were also off and maybe 25.Rf6!? with the plan of going to c6 and playing c4 was best, but even that shouldn't be enough. Soon thereafter, Leko managed to greatly liquidate the pawns on the Queenside and the draw offer by Vlady on move 35 came as no surprise. By drawing, they have guaranteed a tie for first, with Leko the champion on tiebreaks. Big congrats to the two for their impressive achievement!

Tournament winners GM Leko and GM Kramnik at their press conference

Post script: After the event the two winners gave a united press conference where they modestly expressed satisfaction by their performances in Linares. Vlady said he was ill throughout the event and was somewhat affected by it. That after Corus he was happy to finish undefeated and show he is still a tough nut to crack. Peter was glad he once again showed he is no 'drawing master' and had the most decisive games and even took light offense at the local media dubbing him a 'solid player'! They optimistically spoke of their upcoming match and said the Einstein group with the rights for the classical world champ title should announce soon the venue and details. The two diplomatically declined to give predictions for the other match, just the hope and relief that it is scheduled to be played. The couple in unison also agreed that winning Linares was quite special for them, and especially ahead of Kasparov. Vlady said and Peter nodded in agreement that this event showed "who's who" in the chess world, at least currently.

Anand - Kasparov: 

A familiar battleground: Vishy e4s Garry

GM Anand vs GM Kasparov

An accelerated dragon turned real dragon, perhaps an attempt to remind the Indian about their NY dragon where Garry won nicely. Vishy went for a pretty sedated line and not the popular Yugoslav line; His 9.h3 was his way of avoiding a direct confrontation. After consideration, Garry went for the 9…Na5 line which is considered the most challenging. As the game progressed, Anand was very solid and safe in his approach while Kasparov was tirelessly trying to prove his two B are superior by striking at the center and attempting to open lines.On move 21 he sacrificed a pawn in an attempt to complicate matters, but allowing white to capture on f4 after 22…Qf7?! while looking attractive was not the best. Trading on e2 first would have left black with a slight plus. In the game Vishy didn't need to be asked twice to insist on a Q exchange with 24.Qd7! and by then it was evident that black would win his pawn back and enter a drawn R and opposite color B which was agreed drawn without any further play. This draw placed the two in a tie for 3-4 place.
Analysis by Alterman & Doss in PGN and Palview

Vallejo Pons - Ponomariov: 

GM Vallejo vs GM Ponomariov

Overshadowed by the other two games, this classical Queen's Indian encounter was a bit tragic for Vallejo, who tried to nurse a slight edge for much of the game but again fell victim mainly to his usual enemy - time trouble! 12.b4 was a new plan in place of the usual 12.e4 plans, and white was looking quite good after the opening. By freezing the c pawn white had two plans: The first to discourage …e5 by having his N eyeing the d5 square and second to hit with a timely c5. That was eventually achieved, but with white running short of time some accidents started to happen. His 26.Rd7 sortie that might optically seem good was nothing much, and then instead of going for pawn trading guaranteeing himself a sure draw he got into serious time trouble where he gave a pawn without good reason. When the storm was over and there were no Queenside pawns left, we had a 4 versus 3 R endgame on the Kingside, an endgame that should have ended in a draw. Maybe tired, maybe discouraged by the negative turn of events, the Spaniard played quite poorly and facing the loss of a second pawn, entered a dead lost K and P ending…. Quite a shame for Paco to end on such a low note and a nice 'chance seizing' by Pono.