2003 City of Linares Tournament

Ciudad de Linares - Round 5:

As I have mentioned,

The Press Room in a sane moment

alongside the main event the Linares festival is holding an invitational tournament for the blind. 10 players with ratings ranging between 2062-2388, 4 of which are IM's compete in a round robin, all play all format. Naturally, there are a few special rules for this tournament. Players have the right to use the board provided by the organizers or use a second board of their own where they can feel the pieces to recognize their placement. The actual binding move is made on the main board.

Keeping score is obligatory and the competitors have a choice between using the Braille system, a voice recorder or some system known as the Ink system, but I have no idea how it works, and don't think it is used now. Amazingly, the players are responsible for the time situation and any claims! This is done by attaching an earpiece that is connected to the special clocks and so the players know how much time they or their opponent have at any desired moment. The arbiters are instructed not to speak to the players unless summoned by them or of course if they have to.

Not all players are fully blind, some are legally blind and some can even manage navigating around using only their eyes. I have learned the requirements to be considered as a blind player differ from country to country. The time control is 40 moves in 2 hours and 1 hour to finish the game thereafter. The organizers and sponsors cover all the expenses of the players and there are 3 prizes: 1st: 1000 Euros and a trophy, 2nd: 750 Euros, 3: 500 Euros.

If you wonder about the quality of the games, I think that a picture is worth a thousand words! Allow me to present a game from the 4th round, one that was rightfully given the nickname of "The immortal game". The analysis is my loose translation (with the help of internet translation sites) to GM Salov's analysis in the bulletin and by the permission of the editors:

(20) Trkaljanov,V - Berlinsky,V [B97] Linares ONCE (4), 25.02.2003 [Based on Salov]

The immortal game

after 13. Bb5

after 18. Nc6!! after 21..Nc5 after 25. Rxg7

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 Nfd7 12.Ne4 h6 13.Bb5

Statistically speaking, this is the worst line for white in the Sicilian defense. [13.Bh4 Qxa2 14.Rb3 Qa1+ 15.Kf2 Qa4 16.Bb5 axb5 17.Nxb5 Bc5+ 18.Nxc5 Qxh4+ 19.g3 Qd8 20.Qd6 Nxc5! 21.Nc7+ Qxc7 22.Qxc7 Nba6µ Kortchnoi-Tolush, USSR(ch) 1958] 13...hxg5 [13...axb5 14.Nxb5 hxg5 15.Nxa3 Rxa3 16.0–0 Nc6 17.Rb5 Be7 18.Nd6+ Bxd6 19.exd6 f6 20.Re1 Nce5 21.Qb4 Ra6 22.Rxb7 Rh4 23.Qb3 Bxb7 24.Qxe6+ Kf8 25.Rxe5 Nxe5 26.Qe7+ Kg8 27.Qxb7 Rha4 28.d7 Nxd7 29.Qxd7 Rxa2 30.c4 R6a3 31.h3 Rc3 32.Qe8+ Kh7 33.Qh5+ ½–½ Filipek,J-Van Beers,E/Belgium BEL 2001 (33)] 14.Rb3 Qxa2 [14...axb5 15.Rxa3 Bxa3 16.Qxg5 (16.Nxb5 0–0 17.Qxg5 f6 18.Qg3 Be7 19.0–0 Nxe5 20.h4 Bd7 21.Nbc3 Na6 22.h5 Nc5 23.h6 g6 24.Ng5 Ra3 25.Rd1 b5 26.Rxd7 Ncxd7 27.Nxe6 b4 28.h7+ Kh8 29.Qh4 Rxc3 30.Nf4 g5 31.Ng6+ Nxg6 0–1 Utman,C-Arancibia,E/Santiago de Chile 1993/EXT 98 (31)) 16...Ra4 17.Qxg7 Rf8 18.c3 Nc6 19.0–0 Ncxe5 20.Ng5 b4 21.Ndxe6 fxe6 22.Rxf8+ Nxf8 23.Qxe5 bxc3 24.Qxc3 Bd7 25.h4 Be7 26.Qg3 Bc6 27.h5 Rd4 28.h6 Bc5 29.Kf1 Bb5+ 30.Kf2 Rd2+ 0–1 Pichler,J-Ploetz,W/Marktredwitz 1984/EXT 2001 (30)] 15.Qc3 Nc6 It is very difficult to comment on the opening with objectivity because it gives the impression you that the white is completely lost in all the lines. Probably it is not so and with tedious analysis more can be found in this dark variation. We left it for the theoreticians. [15...axb5 16.Qxc8+ Ke7 17.Nd6 Nc6 18.0–0 (18.Qxc6 Qa1+ 19.Rb1 Qxd4 20.Qxb7 Qxe5+ 21.Kf2 Ra4 22.Rhd1 Rf4+ 23.Kg1 Qe3+ 24.Kh1 Rxh2+ 25.Kxh2 Rh4# 0–1 Loman,J-Bakker,S/Hengelo 1994/EXT 2001 (25)) 18...Ncxe5 19.Qc7 (19.N4f5+ exf5 20.Nxf5+ Kf6 21.Qc7 Kg6 0–1; Martínez-Vera, Cuba 1984) 19...Qa7 20.Re3 f6 21.Rd1 Qc5 22.Qxb7 Re8 23.N6f5+ exf5 24.Nxf5+ Kf7 25.Ra1 g6 26.Rd1 gxf5 27.Rxd7+ Nxd7 28.Qxd7+ Be7 29.Qe6+ Kf8 30.Kh1 Qd6 0–1 Martin,A-Huenerkopf,H/London 1984/MCL (30)] 16.Bxc6 bxc6 17.0–0 c5 18.Nc6!!

The novelty! [18.Qf3 cxd4 19.Nd6+ Bxd6 20.Qxf7+ Kd8 21.exd6 Re8 22.Rh3 Bb7 0–1 Sieiro Gonzalez,L-Vera,R/Havana 1983/MCD (22)] 18...Rh4!? [Suddenly, black is experiencing some serious problems! 18...Qa4 19.Qf3!‚ Nxe5 20.Nxe5 Qd4+ 21.Re3±] 19.Qd3 Rxe4 20.Qxe4 c4 21.Rbf3! [It is not easy to see how to defend after this simple move 21.Qf3! Bc5+ 22.Kh1 f5 23.Qh5+ Kf8 24.Rh3 Qa4 25.Qg6 Qxc6 26.Rh8+ Ke7 27.Qe8#] 21...Nc5

after 35. Kh5+

[21...f5 22.exf6 Bc5+ (22...Nxf6 23.Rd1!! Bc5+ 24.Kf1+-) 23.Kh1 Nxf6 24.Qg6+ Kd7 25.Ne5+ Kc7 26.Qxg7+ Nd7 27.Rf7+-] 22.Qh7! [White can even win with a spectacular sacrifice of the lady: 22.Rxf7! Nxe4 23.Rxf8+ Kd7 24.Nb4!!+- Changing course!] 22...Nd3 Desperation 23.Rxf7 [23.cxd3+-] 23...Nf4 24.Qg8 Qa3 25.Rxg7

[25.Rd1!+-; Black has nothing left but an impressive series of checks: 25.Rxg7 Nh3+ 26.gxh3 (26.Kh1 Nf2+) 26...Qe3+ 27.Kg2 Qe2+ 28.Rf2 Qe4+ 29.Rf3 Qe2+ 30.Kg3 Qe1+ 31.Rf2 Qe3+ 32.Kg4 Qe4+ 33.Kxg5 Qe3+ 34.Kg4 Qe4+ 35.Kh5+-

And it's finished. Without doubt the most fantastic game of the Linares tournament thus far and I doubt if it could be surpassed. Not even if the main event.] 1–0

Can't argue with that!

Today's games:

Kasparov - Ponomariov:

The round has started, but neither player wants to arrive first.

Last year this was the match to decide first and second place, but not this year. With both players in the bottom half of the cross table the battle today was for an important point. Kasparov started with 1.Nf3 a move he uses very rarely, and the game developed into a classical Queens Indian. I was surprised to see 12…Na6 as new, and wondered why. After all in the QID everything has been played! So why not that? After some reflection, Kasparov had an answer. 13.e4! was a strong center thrust, and exactly what black has been trying to prevent all the time. The whole point of playing …d5 and recapturing with the pawn on d5 is to hold back that e4 idea. Once it happened, Garry started to look 'interested'. Pono's knee-jerk reaction of 14…g5? Was drifting him from bad to worse. Garry took a lot of time, and I suppose he was analyzing 15.Nxe4! but decided against it. Perhaps later he would say why, since off hand it looks to be huge for white. I will let Boris who is analyzing this game to dive deeper into this. Instead Kasparov decided to sac a pawn for a lot of open lines,

GM Kasparov vs GM Ponomariov

plus a bad Kingside position for black, plus a N in Honolulu (read: away from the arena) and after 20.Qg4! his compensation was more than enough. It became obvious that the material was coming back with its due interest! Ruslan attempted to resurrect his N but it was too late. Matters got so great for white, that there were many ways to continue, for example 27.Rf3 with the simple idea of doubling while protecting the c pawn and Nf5 to follow is also curtains. In the game Ponomariov went 27…f5 (after 27.Rh5) with the concept of pitching a pawn to get to trade Queens and trying to hold the endgame, alas it was not to be. Kasparov simply never looked back and with an obvious look of "I know what I'm doing here" brought black to near zugzwang. The final move for white 43.Rf6! was pretty and efficient, after taking the R Pono stopped the clock and acknowledged defeat. Looks like the old Garry is back!

Radjabov - Anand: A not surprising visit to the Petrosjan Queens Indian and its ocean of theory. The first 14.5 moves were blitzed by the players and only after the new 15.e5 did Vishy clasp his head in his hands and went

GM Radjabov vs GM Anand

on a think. His reply was the accurate 15…Qc6! Centralizing and avoiding d5 ideas. White tried to generate some Kingside play, but after another good decision of 18…cxd4 and 19…f6!? We got a position with reduced material where each side has a weak pawn, which evened things out. One last finesse made sure white realized he had nothing was 21…h6! Since 22.Nxe6? Nd5! Was just better for black, white had to retreat and a draw was the result 3 moves later.

Leko - Vallejo: Leko came to this game armed with a fresh little nuance in this popular Taimanov Sicilian. His 12.Qg5 is a nice idea to shift the Q to the Kingside while gaining a tempo to send the Ne5 backwards to g6. Normally white goes 12.Kb1 or Qf2 and here we expected 13.Qe3 after 12…Ng6 but Peter somewhat surprisingly offered a Q trade on g3. There is a saying that if black gets to exchange Q in the Sicilian, he is doing ok. Of course there are exceptions to this, for example today trading would have left white the happier man, but as it happened after 13…Bd6 14.Qf2 white got a book position for himself with the black N worse off on g6 than on e5 and the black B worse off on d6 than on e7! Not a bad deal. I should mention that taking on h2 at any point was simply a huge risk not only in principle, for opening such a file for white, but also more concretely in danger of the sac Rxh2 and

GM Leko vs GM Vallejo

e5 after it with huge initiative and compensation. So now it was white's turn to insist on a Q trade after which he had a slight pull in the endgame. Black's demise started with the plan of 19…Rc6?! Which necessitated 20…bxa4, leaving him with a worse structure. Peter played some impressive moves, especially his maneuver Re1-e5-a5 was a beautiful lesson in geometry. It was like white had an extra pawn with his Queenside majority, and while perhaps Paco could have defended better, it wasn't easy to see where. My guess is that he should have played Ke7 faster and left his N on f6 for an exchange offer whenever white gets in Nc5. As it happened, the black N got lost on e3 while white was corralling the isolated a pawn and paralyzed te black pieces in trying to defend it. The final position is quite aesthetic with black resigning not even one pawn down, but his position in bankruptcy. Nice work by the Hungarian GM!