by Aviv Friedman

The organizers of the Linares chess tournament often describe their city of 65000 inhabitants the ‘chess capital of the world’. This proud claim is certainly not undeserved, at least for period of about 3 weeks a year. One of the handful annual events that offer the highest level of competition, it might not have the 60+ years of tradition of say Corus/Wijk Aan Zee but with this year’s festival marking the 19th year of this prestigious event, it is certainly an established success story. As I write these lines on the evening of the opening ceremony, the tournament has all the makings of the hottest event of the year, and we are only in February! Why am I making such a prophetic statement? Well, there are many reasons, let me count the main ones: After some doubts and heated exchanges that echoed over the internet, an agreement was made between the newly crowned FIDE world champion Ponomariov and the organizers and he is playing in his debut with his shiny, new title. This excitement is accentuated by the fact that the world’s number 1 player, who is quite outspoken against FIDE’s knockout system, said in an interview that he had never even seen Ponomariov (hinting loud and clear that a player who has yet to compete with the elite can’t be seriously considered a world champion) He went further to opine about the ‘winning combination’ of young age and a fast time control leading to the 18 year old Russian’s victory. Not much later, the loser in the FIDE finals match, Ivanchuk didn’t seem too complimenting either to his countryman. He blamed many factors in the result, including his own shortcomings and the pressure on him as a pre match favorite, but many good words about his opponent were noticeably absent. Will the new champ make them eat their words or will he be up for a deluxe ‘over-the-board-spanking’ in this mega event? Time will tell, and soon! Now, lets add to the mix the fact that both Kasparov and Anand have yet to ‘push wood’ this year and must be hungry to show all that the world does not yet belong to the young. Especially Anand, who took a well-needed break after some unflattering results that led to some top players to say that he lost some of his sting, must be fresh and rejuvenated. Still not enough excitement you say? OK, how about the ‘added bonus’ that the rift between Shirov and Kasparov after their unplayed match from 1998 is still unmended? As far as I know the two are still not on speaking terms. Will there be a handshake before and after their games? Stay tuned, I am also curious but we will have to be patient till round 7(!) when the two will meet. So indeed expectations are high and for this event it seems that there are more than just the points waiting to be won. Big time bragging rights, larger than the usual ones we see in major events are also at stake.

One last note about who is NOT here: Sadly, Kramnik is not playing and rumors of why are abounded. Finding whom to blame depends on who you ask, of course but the fact remains that he is not here and is not too busy either. He is scheduled to play some blitz match with British wunderkind David Howel. Certainly nothing that couldn’t have been rescheduled if need be… If Vlady was playing, this would have been an undisputed (and unofficial, obviously!) world championship tournament, reminiscent of the big events of old. Alas, he is out and this is more than good enough!

Ponomariov - Ivanchuk: Didn’t these two just finish a match for the FIDE world champs between them!?:) Well, if you read above about Ivanchuk’s interview where he wasn’t very appreciative of the new FIDE champ, you’d know that this game was for keeps. Win, and you are the hero of the day, lose and well… everyone remembers. The opening was hardly a surprise, a French, but this time Ivanchuk played the Winawer in place of the classical. Ponomariov chose a seemingly new plan of not rushing with a4 and Ba3 on the queenside and instead playing the interesting 17.Ne1 with the idea of g3, Ng2 etc. I didn’t like black’s reaction with 17…g5?! And after 20.f4! White was in control. Perhaps he should have tried 27…Ne4!? To mix things up a bit and certainly 29…Kh7? Was bad. The ugly 29…a4 was a sad necessity. In the game white struck hard with 30.a4! and after the forced capture the quiet 31.Bc1 heading to a3 was very hard to meet. With all the white pieces in ideal positions, black gambled with 32…Qxc2 and after a forced sequence, sacrificed a whole piece only to learn that after a few accurate consolidating moves he had nothing and resigned. Looks like once again Ivanchuk is doing the talking and Ponomariov the chalking.

Shirov - Anand: Another pair who is no foreign to playing each other in a match. Last year Anand beat Shirov convincingly to win the FIDE championship and this year he knocked him out in the semis. It might be fair to say that usually the Indian has the Spaniard’s number but today was different: In a very contemporary Taimanov Sicilian, white played the main challenging try against 8…Bb4 with 9.Na4. If you wondered why is this even a move since e4 is hanging, look at Nxc6 and a Qd4 (with or without a Nb6 in-between move) to understand. My database claims that black’s 14th was a new move, although not a new plan, but with Anand’s move order, white managed to get a Q and B battery along the a1-h8 diagonal which he usually doesn’t get. Vishy decided to sacrifice a pawn instead of defending a position where white also has the B pair and a better pawn structure. That pawn sac (try it on your analysis engines, these would frown at it heavily) led to a major piece ending with B of opposite color, which are notoriously difficult to win. The usual strategy of exchanging pieces is understandably not so easy and so Shirov tried with all his might to have a concentration of pieces around Anand’s king. It is hard to pinpoint where white missed his chances, but since white had an extra pawn and was in control he must have been winning. Somehow, Black defended quite well and around the time control smartly sacrificed a second pawn to force the exchange of queens and rooks. Despite his two pawn advantage, white could not win - he might have had better chances according to GM Ljubojevich had he kept his pawn on h3 and tried to time a b4 return sac along with an a4 push to follow, with some winning chances. In the game, black simply managed to block one of the extra pawns with his queenside pawns and the other with the blockade of his K and B and after 52 moves the point was shared.

Vallejo - Kasparov: The drawing paired the highest and lowest rated players right away in round 1, and everyone wished the young Spaniard the best of luck on the evening of the opening ceremony. We were actually seated at the same table for dinner and he seemed in good spirits. Today he certainly didn’t show any nerves against the ‘monster with 1000 eyes’ (as the late Tony Miles once called him) and fought very hard. It was a 4 Knights English, and in the spirit of Nimzowich, black traded his dark squared B for the Nc3, compromising the pawn structure. The usual debate is of course, what will prevail, white’s more space and B pair or black’s easier maneuverability of his N’s in a closed position and the abovementioned pawn structure. In this game it was all about the latter. With a masterful hand Kasparov outplayed his opponent, neutralizing any initiative white might have hoped for and working on the pawn weaknesses. The pressure eventually bore fruit with black winning the c4 pawn; what’s more white’s optically alarming mobility on the right wing was met with Kasparov’s very calm Kf8-e7 sortie of the king and the entrance of his own rook to h8. Black looked all winning and ready to wrap things up when he played the inexplicable 42…Bb3? Instead of a simple rook retreat that would leave him up a pawn and better! The youngster didn’t need a second invitation, after some careful thinking he seized his chance with 43.Nxe5! after which he had very little to be worried about anymore. Enter a few forced moves and more liquidation of the material and Kasparov offered a draw that was accepted immediately. A nice start for the local hero!