2003 City of Linares Tournament

If you are an avid soccer fan you know, there is nothing more elating than when your team scores a goal - The better the opponent, the bigger the excitement of course. On Spanish speaking TV channels such a feat is often followed by the announcer's loud (and long!) 'Goalllllllllllllllllll!!" shout.

Don Rentero, the founder of the tournament

Yesterday, after Paco Vallejo's shocking upset of Peter Leko, that shout was the only thing missing in the Anibal hotel. The locals exude a wave of enthusiasm and genuine joy, and I would say that Paco shook more hands of well-wishers that a US president in an election rally! As a fellow journalist put it at the end of the day: "My friend Paco won, Anand won, and it is Friday night and I am going out! So life is good". However unbiased the reporting might be, the Spanish media is a collective fan club of the talented Spaniard and takes pride in him.

As I have mentioned, the pressroom is becoming more and more like a beehive as the event is coming to a close. In addition to the many media personnel - some who have been here since day one and others who came for the climax, there are many GMs frequenting the media center. As is often the case with chess, you'd get as many opinions and assessments of the positions on the TV monitors as there are GMs! "Black is totally lost" you'd hear one of them claim - " No, it's maybe slightly better for black here, not more," hails another. "Come on, it's going to be a draw!" says yet a third.

Chess art in the hotel

That's what most find so fascinating about chess: it is surely not an accurate science and some positions, even to the most trained eye can be deceiving. Someone flamboyant like Ljubo (GM Ljubojevic) likes to assess positions in 'black or white'. There is no "this position is equal" but rather "it's a draw!" He has played with these big guys more than once and certainly understands chess to earn the respect of everyone. 22-year-old GM Malakhov (2677 ELO!) is a lot more reserved and his softly spoken comments would not preclude cautious, non-committal evaluations. Obviously such contrasts add color and fun to the already great atmosphere and it is quite amusing to watch. I confess to having a 'patzer's delight' at the times when my outlooks turn out better than the opinions around me!

More chess art

With Kramnik and Anand tied for first with 6/10 and Kasparov and Leko breathing down their necks with 5.5/10 everything is still up for grabs. Today Kasparov is having the easiest pairings (on paper!) with white against Vallejo while Kramnik with black against Ponomariov also hoping to score. The big match is clearly Leko - Anand, in what might be Peter's last bid to change places with Vishy (Again!) and try to claim a share of first. Tomorrow's draw brings us Kramnik - Leko and Anand - Kasparov in what might be a photo-finish battle for the top honors! Stay tuned!

Chess Time:

  Leko - Anand:

GM Leko vs GM Anand

Another double King pawn for Vishy and this time it is the Petroff. This classical Jaenisch sub line is clearly one of the most used amongst the world elite and much has been tried and analyzed. 16.Bd3 was surprisingly a new move. The idea is to facilitate Rb1 by shutting of the Bf5. Vishy who plays this as white also, stopped for a little think-time and seemed to equalize. After the trade of B, a pair of Rooks also came off and then with Peter's 27.Bxc7, the last pair of minors came off. In the ensuing major piece ending, white had a passed d pawn on the seventh. It was a pleasant position for Leko, but questionable whether it was good enough to win. At one time Vishy simply transposed to a R ending a pawn down, but it was a Rook pawn and those are notoriously drawn. Inexplicably, black played this endgame carelessly. First, on move 37…h5! Instead of 37…Kg7? Leads to a much better structure where white cannot easily advance his Kingside. After 40.g4! defending got harder for sure - with 42…g5 we have arrived at what looks like a textbook winning position: The white R defends all pawns and the white K comes all the way to help promote the a pawn. Still, 45…Rc4! Was very stubborn, forcing white to find 46.f4!. Instead it looked like resignation any second, maybe faster if Peter chose the shorter 50.Rb3-a3. The result did not change however, and on move 65 a tired Anand offered his hand in resignation. Another half point lost unnecessarily.

  Radjabov - Kramnik:

GM Radjabov vs GM Kramnik

In today's modern chess, no opening is ever completely just tactical or just positional. Today we saw a Queen's Indian Petrosian gone 'coffeehouse'. First white offered a theoretical pawn sac on d5, which no one ever accepts because of 12…Bxd5 13.0-0-0 with a lot of initiative for a pawn. Next we saw Vlady sending his g and f pawn duo forward! Actually after the first original move of the game, 15.Ng1 there is an old Adorjan recommendation of playing 15...Bg5 at once, without pushing the f pawn. He claims it as clear edge for black, which might be a bit much. In the game both players had a compromised strategic position and white again offered another pawn, this time on g4 or e3, but black declined to capture either immediately. Also, black permitted white to capture on f5 at leisure, but that was also refused. Obviously the element of time was a lot more important than a measly pawn! When white went 20.Ne2 and black took on e3, all expected a draw with 21.Bxf5 Qg3+ 22.Kd2 Qe3+ (22…Rxe2+ doesn't win either) 23.Ke1 and so on. The Azeri came up with 21.c4?! but black seized the initiative with his 23…Qg5+ and 26…Re3, leaving him up a pawn. The exchange of Q didn't bring black's edge to an end, since the white pawn on c4 was very weak and the d pawn was totally blockaded. Black missed his biggest chance on move 41, after some mutual piece shuffling, when he went 41…Re7. It seems like 41…f4! Clearing f5 for his only poor piece, the B, would have been hard to meet. Vlady was thinking a lot around that time but decided against it. The last chance came and went on move 45 when he pitched the b pawn rather than defend passively but be two pawns up. So the youngster's tenacity and strong defending paid off finally when Kramnik offered a draw after his 48th move.

GM Kasparov vs GM Vallejo

Kasparov - Vallejo Pons:  Kasparov doesn't often play the advanced Caro Kann and so the question was what did he cook up and when will he spring it. The answer came as early as move 4(!) with 4.Nd2. Not a novelty at all but never played before by Garry, as far as the databases reveal. Paco took some time on his next move, but followed previous GM games till his 8…Bh7. Black really looked like he has built a decent position, closing the center at the right moment and speedingly rushing his Queenside. Garry looked a bit worried but when Vallejo erred with 23…Nb6? And then 27…Be7?! He was again back in the saddle. Surprisingly, the move all here were sure white would play (and did!) 30.gxf5 might have been bad. There was no rush to take that a pawn, which was lost anyways. Closing any doors on the Kingside with 30.a3 and 31.g5! and later taking the pawn would have given black none of the activity he managed in the game. At the end, reaching time control after the time trouble Kasparov allowed Vallejo to repeat the position for the third time", and Paco calmly summoned an arbiter to claim a 3-fold repetition. That wasn't necessary as Garry quickly offered his hand in acknowledgement and a draw was registered. Ouside the playing room, Garry hit his forehead as if commenting about his play in this game, and later was overheard saying he thought Vallejo might have even been better in the final position! A crazy game for sure! Don't miss GM Boris Alterman's analysis!
Analysis by Alterman & Doss in PGN and Palview

after 36. .. Qh5

after 40. Ne2