2003 City of Linares Tournament

A quick update regarding GM Romero's condition: Thankfully he is out of the coma, although quite groggy from being sedated. Gladly his injuries are not life threatening, although the doctors said they would need another 24 hours before they could give a more definite, comprehensive prognosis. Lets hope this is the first in a series of good news and again best wishes for a speedy and full recovery Alfonso!

GM-elect Hikaru Nakamura

A few words about the players' demeanors:

One certainly can't call Garry Kasparov a poker face! The world's number 1 player is quite famous for his facial expressions, body language and other 'tells'. When he arrives at the board, often a few minutes late, he firmly shakes his opponent's hand, usually with a nod and a smile. Some, like his old rivals Anand and Kramnik even get an even broader nod and smile with a tightening of the lips gesture of respect. Upon sitting, he takes off his watch, almost always while looking to the left, puts it on the table and releases his tie a bit. A few piece adjustments and the man is ready for war! During the game when the camera focuses on him, we can often see him in different poses. In the opening he is often with his head clasped between his hands, directly looking at the board. When he is better, much better or winning, once can sense it and feel the look of a tiger ambushing his prey in the tall grass. When he blunders… well, everyone knows and everyone knows he knows! Head shaking, hands throwing, some soft word muttering reveal the 'accident'. In extreme cases he has this bitter smile while looking up, as if saying: " God, why are you doing this to me?" With this scary combination of his enormous chess knowledge and ability and his board presence sitting down to play him can be traumatic to many!

Boris Radjabov, Teimour's dad

The other players are much less animated and revealing:

Vladimir Kramnik is always quiet and unassuming, on and off the board. Sometimes he can be seen sitting there, concentrating at the board biting his lower lip as he is pondering. He is always in a suit and takes off his jacket and places it on his chair as soon as he gets there. Vlady looks quite confident when playing and shows no fear when playing Garry.

A players' drink-order form

Vishy Anand likes to arrive at the board 2-3 minutes before the round begins, usually sporting casual attire with a sweater, he sits, and looks straight at the board. He very rarely shows any revealing emotions at the board, keeping a good poker face. Only against Garry towards the end did he look tired and more concerned. When he is winning he often takes some time to walk around between moves. Always approachable, after the games he is available for comments and maintains his composure even after tough losses or misses.

Peter Leko is another true professional. Always in a colorful jacket and dress shirt, he looks well kempt. I can't think of a time when he didn't look ready for a photo session without a need to change anything and I don't recall ever seeing 'bad photos' of him. Peter is one of the players with the best board discipline: He often times stays seated for hours completely immersed in the position. He likes to lean a bit forward when contemplating his moves, much different from another very tall player, Kramnik who prefers leaning back when thinking. The Hungarian GM is a very serious person but as I have learned when I interviewed him for ICC last year, he can open up and reveal a healthy sense of humor.

Ruslan Ponomariov, despite his bad form and difficulties in this tournament, seems to stay in good spirits. Yesterday against Vishy was the first time I saw his face in some distress, shortly into the middle game. Often in a light colored suit, the young Ukrainian might look a bit thin and fragile but underestimating him because of that would be the same mistake as one would looking at an agile Cheetah hunting!

15-year-old Azeri talent Teimour Radjabov often in a brown jacket and smart casual clothes, is quickly adjusting to swimming with the sharks. Mature well beyond his years, the youngster is clearly not out of place here. He has a very serious look on his face when playing, sometimes glancing at his opponents' reaction to moves he makes to see their impression. At the latter stages of the game, be it a good or bad position he looks concerned and squints his eyes. His English is very good and he is also very accommodating to journalists and the crowd - Yesterday after his loss to Leko, he was just the same likeable, friendly person he always is.

Linares' 7th player, Spaniard Paco Vallejo usually wears comfortable, much less formal or casual clothes than the others. Off the board is seems very relaxed but when playing he looks really intense! I often see him sitting on one of his legs folded, staring at the board with large, open eyes the way young people look when they are really interested at something. This event isn't easy for him, of course, but he too maintains a good attitude and eternal optimism and daring.

So these are our 'actors on the stage' and I am not ashamed to admit that often times I am quite envious at what they have achieved and their great talent and understanding of our beloved game! Saludos Gran Maestros!

Today's Games:

Radjabov - Kasparov:

GM Radjabov vs GM Kasparov

Most eyes were on this battle today. Kasparov doesn't like to keep open accounts and he 'owes' Radja one! Contrary to my own expectations of an opening like a Slav or semi Slav Kasparov went for the Queens Gambit Accepted and his young opponent cautiously chose a very tame, almost symmetrical continuation. He did try to lure Garry into taking on e4 on move 12, like Lautier riskily played against Timman in '97, but Kasparov passed and went for 12…Qe5!? Which seems new. The air came out of the balloon when soon thereafter the two went on a trading spree into a symmetrical pawn structure, R and 2 minor piece ending which was totally drawish and without excitement. It's only Kasparov who pedagogically decided to make sure his young opponent earns his draw that the game went on a bit more. The symmetry was broken but the result was never in any doubt. With one move left for time control, and only a dead even B ending left, the players repeated and a draw was registered.

Kramnik - Ponomariov:

GM Kramnik vs GM Ponomariov

A strange thing happened in this game! It started as your garden variety Ruy Lopez Keres variation when Kramnik uncorked 12.Kh1?!!? Huh?! Kh1?! Peter Leko on a free day was visiting the pressroom and commented:" This move is equal or worse than passing" This humorous statement was followed by Peter theorizing that Vlady inadvertently touched his K. "This can be the only explanation for such a move" he said, and "If he wins he could say it was a brilliant waiting move, if he loses he could blame it on a 'finger fehler'" Told ya Peter had a sense of humor! After the game Vishy was no less amusing when he noted that the move had the benefit of waiting for cxd4 where the Nb1 could land in its ideal place on c3, and that black might have tried 11…Kh8!? To 'counterpass' the turn to white! As the game progressed, so did Kramnik's advantage, but as he admitted after the game he needed to play precisely and was too tired to make the most of it. Black's plan of 13…f5!? Was premature and white had a few good ways to take advantage of it, for example 25.Rf7!? was better than 25.Bg5?! that allowed black to somewhat consolidate. The real mistake was after 28…f3! (the best try) 29.Rxf3?! squandering almost all of the advantage. 29.h5! was correct with a considerable advantage for white despite the opposite color B cause of the Kingside weakness. Even at the very end, some GM's were optimistic about Kramnik's chances to nudge some, but probably realizing he let a lot of his pull go Vlady just offered a draw, which Ponomariov was only too happy to accept. Another scare for Ruslan and another saved ½ point!

A quick post script: I asked GM Malakhov, one of Vlady's seconds after he had a chance to speak to him about this mystery move 12.Kh1 and he said it was no touch move, it was a waiting move his boss very much intended to play. OK, unusual, but mystery solved!

Analysis by Alterman & Doss in PGN and and Palview

Anand - Vallejo Pons:

GM Anand vs GM Vallejo

My least favorite opening paid us another visit. Just when I thought that now that Vlady had passed on it against Kasparov, just as I had hoped that maybe Pono grew out of it, Paco decided to revive it! Yes, it is the Berlin defense in the Ruy again. Here too we witnessed a small oddity, when Vallejo moved 12….Bd7 which is normal but then moved it again on the very next move 13…Be6. Anand had the usual slight pull white often gets, but somehow didn't look or play with great motivation today, perhaps still an after effect of his misses in the last two days. Vallejo, with a series of pretty simple moves like trading on g5 and e4 at good time neutralized anything white might have had. The things got really bad for Anand! 24.R4e3? was "scandalous" if to quote Vishy. Ho got lucky when Paco, not appreciating the turn of events didn't play 25…f4! Instead of the dogmatic 25…Rf6?! Black would then have a clear edge since 26.Re4 Rd3! Is annoying and otherwise the e pawn would feel quite loose. In the game, a double R ending has appeared and once white went f4 himself, since even winning the white e pawn would mean trading all Rooks into a drawn pawn ending the point was shared.

Probably Linares 2003's least exciting round.