2003 City of Linares Tournament

Need a hint? Ok… The year is 1987; the venue is Minorca, Spain, shortly after Kasparov won the world title in Seville. By now I am sure most already guessed but if not one last hint: His opponent is also playing in Linares! Yup, you guessed it, it is non other than Paco Vallejo! A cool memento and thanks to my colleague David Llada for his permission to use it.

Yesterday, the 10th annual Anibal open had started. It is a 10 round Swiss with 125 players from 33 countries! It is quite a strong event with 22 GM's (+ one GM elect, Hikaru Nakamura from the US) 36 IM's, and 2 WGM. Once again, Slovenian GM Alexander Beliavsky , who has played in the main event before, is leading the pack. Naturally, GM and IM norms are possible, as well as achieving a FIDE rating. The tournament is using the new FIDE time control, of game in 90 minutes plus 30 second increment per move - A blessing to some, a curse to others. Clearly this is funner for the TD's since after about 4 hours of play it is all over for the day. No adjournments, no long down-to-the-wire 7 hour games.

GM Dokhoian, Garry's coach.

There are 50 prizes, ranging from a token 100 Euro for places 26-50 to 10,000 Euros for first, which is donated by Don Louis Rentero, the founder of the Linares festival. Unfortunately for the players, 25% of each prize is deducted for taxes.

The atmosphere is always good and with only 125 players, everyone is guaranteed some good competition. As a matter of fact if you are an expert level player or even a high A player in the US, this is the tournament for you. Let me be your travel planner: Airfares from the US East coast are $350-400 maximum for a direct flight to Madrid. Add $15-20 bucks for a cab ride to the Chamartin train station, $20 for the 3 or so hour train ride to Linares/Baeza and a couple of bucks for the bus to the hotel (x2 for round trip) Rooms for the players are 25 Euro PP in a double room, or 40 Euro for single. Food is pretty cheap (and good!) at the hotel's restaurant or other eateries nearby. Entry fee is a very reasonable 50 Euro. So… For what it would cost to fly to play in one of the big CCA events in the US, you can travel to Europe, see the strongest chess event of the year and play in a civil, one round per day strong open too. The entire experience if to borrow a line from the MasterCard commercial is indeed priceless.

Games synopsis:

GM Ponomariov vs GM Vallejo

Ponomariov - Vallejo: A very aggressive start from Pono, playing the violent 7.g4 in the Stoltz semi Slav and chose a very early new move 10.cxd5. After 14 moves white took very little time, and it is likely it was all home brewed while black was eating oodles of time. The players entered a line where some exchanges were made and black sacked a pawn (note that black is not winning a piece after 12…bxc6 since white has 13.g5) White was right to play 14.Qb3! since 14.Qxd3 Qd5! Is looking good for black. Perhaps this is what Paco missed since now he had to trade Queens, as 16 …Qg2 17.Qa4+ is nothing for black. With the Knights traded soon thereafter, which is black's best try, an endgame of R's and B of opposite color occurred. These as we know are toughies, but Pono really shined. Methodically he managed to advance his center pawns, sacrificing the insignificant a pawn and spending no time on taking black's a pawn. Finally after the time control the white d pawn became the deciding factor. Black gave up his B for that pawn and the h pawn and while white had a lot of work to win, he played quickly and confidently. The last little hope has evaporated when black realized that 56…a3 also fails after 57.bxa3 Rb3+ 58. Kc2 Rxa3 59.Rh3+ wins. Paco could have spared the last dozen or so moves which he played out of inertia before resigning. It seems like Ruslan has regained his old self!

GM Anand waiting 5 minutes after the round started

Kasparov - Anand: Once again the two rivals are sitting to play each other. Kasparov came about 5 full minutes late and the curious question of will it be 1.e4 or 1.d4 was answered as the former. Would it be a Sicilian? A Petroff? Neither, it is a Classical Caro Kann. The players blitzed through well-known theory for 20 full moves! Only after Vishy's speedy 20.Rfd8 did Kasparov slow down considerably. This was all still familiar 'book' and now guesses were flying: Would he go 21.c3 or 21.f3, or perhaps 21.Rd3 or something new? 21.Be3 was new indeed, and white maintain a slight pull thanks to his space edge and his chances of advancing his Kingside pawns. Vishy did his best reducing some material and keeping things closed but Kasparov's plan of f4-f5-f6 along with the ingenious maneuver Ra1-a3-b3 was maintaining his initiative.

GM Kasparov vs GM Anand

On move 35 Anand erred with 35…gxf6? (35…Rc8!?-c6 was better) but in the mutual time trouble Kasparov returned the favor with his 37.Rxb6?! instead of 37.exf6!. When a Rook ending arose, one GM in the pressroom was heard replying to the question of how he assessed it with the old Tarrasch quote: "there is no win in Rook endings" Indeed it looked so, but there was still ample play for Kasparov, without any risk of losing. Kasparov pushed hard and Vishy defended heroically until the disastrous 57…Kh8?? That not only incorrectly threw the important h pawn away but also missed 57…Rc5! After 58.Kxf4 (58.Kg4 f3) Rxh5 59.Rd6 (59.Re6 Kg7-f7 draws) Rc5 60.Ke4 h5! And black uses his own passer to save the day. In the game the absence of the h pawn made matters easy and clear and on move 62 a very tired Anand offered his hand in resignation. A tragic loss for Vishy and plenty of kudos to Garry for his incredible tenacity.

GM Leko vs GM Kramnik

Leko - Kramnik: Another opening blitz through 'theory lane' all the way to move 19. Rab1!? Is a new idea that sent Vlady thinking for some 20 minutes. In return, after his 19…Bxb2 reply it was Leko's turn to lose himself in thought. At first, his plan of Nc2-b4-c6 looked really strong and menacing, alas quickly it was established that despite black's ugly structure and funny K position, his plans of Kg7-h8, Rg8 followed by f4-f3 or Nf4 were quite serious. White went with the drastic 23.f4!? and just when the mood was shifting towards 'black looks somewhat better', Kramnik surprised everyone with a draw offer which was accepted quickly. Maybe white can just play the ugly 26.g3 and stay alive…