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XX International Chess Tournament |
The grand tournament in Linares began on the 21st of February, and we have been reporting faithfully on each round of this "Wimbledon tournament" of chess. Only one thing was really missing: pictures from the provincial capital of Andalusia. There was only a trickle coming out of Linares, so we decided to pack our cameras and embark on the journey to the south of Spain. The person in charge of photography on this trip is Nadja Woisin, who speaks better Spanish than anyone else in the ChessBase team. The author of this short introduction will be covering the live games on the Playchess.com server, which you should visit if you want to catch some of the chess spirit in Linares.
So on to our first picture report from Linares:
Arrival at Madrid's Barajas airport, with Nadja Woisin for once in front
of the camera
Driving past beautiful scenery towards
Linares in a compact car
About halfway to Linares they arranges a traditional Spanish sunset for us
The famous hotel Anibal where the chess event always takes place
The town hall of Linares, where the Lord Mayor welcomes the players
Anti-American slogan sprayed on the wall
A clever little girl and her grandpa in the streets of Linares
An Andalusian lady in the doorway of her house
Lunch with Alexander Roshal and his wife Irina.
Alex is if nothing else an extremely entertaining luncheon companion. Here he was looking at the menu and told us that pork chops were of course our of the question for Jews (like him). "But pork chops at half price, that is a real dilemma!" he said. "Life is all about pork chops at half price." And he also considered asking the waiter if the pork was kosher. What can you say, apart from ;-)
Radjabov with his mother at lunch. Teimour loves freshly squeezed orange juice
and orders it in perfect Spanish: "Un zumo de naranja al natural."
Vlady Kramnik, who had been feeling quite unwell the day before, limbers up
for the game with a walk in the park with his seconds Miguel Illescas and Vladimir
Malakhov.
Local boy Paco Vallejo Pons with his Cuban trainer Rinaldo Vera
Ponomariov with his second Juri Razuvaev...
And preparing for battle on the board
His opponent prepares for suffering and anguish
Waiting for Kasparov: Vishy Anand at the board
The Great One arrives amid a flurry of flashes
The Kasparov glare at the beginning of the game
Anand's wife Aruna with friend (Fred Friedel of ChessBase)
The press center with 12 monitors and (the heavens be thanked) a DSL line
Spanish chess journalist Leonxto Garcia doing live commentary
GMs Razuvaev and Malakhov (Kramnik's second) help Frederic Friedel with the
commentary on the Fritz server
Anand's clan: wife Aruna, Mauricio and Nieves Perea
The GMs analyze the position with Fritz on the server
Legendary GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic, who also voiced his opinion on the server
... and his talented daughter Nora who spent the whole game drawing comic strips
A prominent face in the X Linares Open: Alexander Beliavsky
Photos: Nadja Woisin – Text: Frederic Friedel
