by Aviv Friedman

The Linares pressroom is not lacking in colorful and interesting characters. Visitors of all levels, ages, nationalities and walks of life are here, making the experience even more entertaining and at time amusing. One of the most noticeable of the "colorful" kind, and I do mean it in the most complimentary way, is GM Ljubomir Ljubojevich. Yugoslavia's leading player for many years, he left for Spain after the bloody civil war that tore his homeland apart. His official title here is "technical advisor" but he is a lot more than that. If I had to try and define roles here, I would have to start with "chief host"! He knows EVERYONE and I do mean everyone, from all the top players, with whom he did battle himself plenty of times over the years, to all the journalists, the new and old visitors - he knows them all. Don't be fooled if you hunted for his current ELO and wasn't too impressed. He might not be as active as a player as he used to be, but his chess understanding, his feel and love for chess make him the ultimate authority in the pressroom. The type of position is not important at all! Tactical, positional, a middle game, a delicate endgame - he is always looking, suggesting moves, setting a board to seek for the truth in the position. Ljubo is as charismatic as he is personable and his enthusiasm reaches everyone! Here is an example: After his quick draw in round 2, Ivanchuk came to the press room to relax a little and watch the remaining games on the TV screens. Who do you think got him to sit and analyze some missed opportunities in his endgame against Ponomariov from round 1? You got it, Ljubo did. Soon there was an army around them, hovering and enjoying some high-class analysis.

Also very dominant in the pressroom is Spain's leading chess journalist, Leontxo Garcia who serves as an unofficial "union representative' for all journalists. Always a fountain of information and extremely outgoing and intelligent, he shies away from no burden or whatever toll it might take on his own time or work to similarly be a local host and not just a reporter.

Today's games:

Kasparov - Anand: Once again, like in his game with Shirov, Anand played the Taimanov Sicilian. The players followed that game for a while, until Kasparov played the more promising 14.e5 that Ivanchuk used successfully against Lautier in Monaco 2000. Evidently, Kasparov had prepared a novelty deviating from that game, since he quickly played 15.c4 (Ivanchuk played b3) It is not clear how much better his approach was. When GM Ubilava was asked about the progress of this game around move 25, he replied with confidence that Kasparov was never better. Amusingly enough, GM Ljubojevich opined that only 32.Bb1(?) was bad and instead 32.Kg2! Not yet allowing 32…Rb5! Would have left white significantly better (!) Now with the c5 pawn attacked this was not possible anymore. So you see, ask 10 GM's for their opinions about a position, get 10 different answers! One thing is sure and agreed upon unanimously: 33…Qe7?? was a terrible blunder. Perhaps 33…Qf8!? was a simple alternative. After 34.Rxh6+! black couldn't capture because of Qx and a Rook lift with bad news. Still, nothing was over yet! In serious time trouble, white played a few second and third best moves (37.Qd3?! was noticeably one of them) that got Vishy right back in the game. The drama continued as a matter of fact, on move 38 when instead of 38…Qc1+ and 32…Qxc5, Anand went 38…Rxb2?! 39.Bg6+ was a nice trick (because if 39…Kxg6 40.Rg4 Rxe2 41.Rxg5 Kxg5 42.Qh4+ and wins Re2 next move) but 39.Re5! was a great practical try! 39…Qc1+ 40.Kg2 Rb1! (The best try. Not 40…Rd2? 41.Rf4+! Ke8 42.Rxe6+! dxe6 43.Bg6+ Kd7 44.Rf7+ Kc8 45.Qe5 is also curtains for black.) 41.Bxb1 Rxb1 42.Qd3 Qh1+! (if Qg1+ 43.Kh3 Rb2 44.Rxd5! cxd5 (forced) 45.Rf4+ wins!) 43.Kh3 Rb2 is a mess and hard to find! Maybe white is better even here! The irony (or was it justice?) came after the time control when Kasparov played 42.Bh7+ which could allow the 39.Re5 line, however it was a 3-fold repetition and Anand claimed a draw by stating he plans Kf7 but without actually playing it. A very frustrated Kasparov had to resign himself to reality. What a fantastic game that was!

Vallejo - Ivanchuk: What started as an Alekhine defense and a surprise to the young Spaniard, since he took a lot of time for his second move, quickly transposed into a 4 Knights defense with 4.g3. The game took a new course as early as move 8 when Ivanchuk, playing quite rapidly, played 8…b5!? A new move in the position. White started consuming a lot of time, and by move 16 had a full hour less on his clock. It's not clear why Chucky was moving so fast, it hardly looks like home preparation. In the pressroom, the visiting GM's criticized some of the moves (20…Rb5?! Is one such move) Paco even refused a draw offer that accompanied 14…Nd4. After move 18 black had only consumed 10 minutes (!) while white was left with less than 25 minutes for the remaining 22 moves. On his next move black started thinking a bit, perhaps because now white offered a draw, but not much on his remaining moves. Vallejo kept his cool, but with little time didn't take full advantage of his position by playing the exciting and probably promising 25.f4! instead of the tame 25.Bf1. Soon thereafter when 30…Ne5 came about, accompanying it was a draw offer, which was accepted, Probably much more due to time than the position. In another room, GM Salov opined that white was still obviously better and with more time would have played on. It seems Ivanchuk has lost all ambition after the first round and is now just "going through the motions'.

Shirov - Adams Shirov politely rejected Adams' invite to play his favorite Marshall attack in the Ruy Lopez with 8.a4 - the anti Marshall. I liked black's treatment of the position after 14.Bg5 dxe4 with Rad8 but perhaps black didn't solve his opening problems. Shirov tried a little trap - namely 21.Bd5 (so if 21…c6 22.Bxf7 was a bit confusing - since 22…Kxf7 23.Qxh6 or 22…Qxf7 23.Rxd1 and Qc5) but he had nothing to really work with. Perhaps better was 21.Rd2 and if 21…Rxd2 22.Nxd2 with some pull for white. Instead, the game ended on a whimper with a 3-fold repetition. Not very exciting…