Linares R2: Anand scores, Kasparov misses

The XXII Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez "Ciudad de Linares", a category 20 double round robin, is being held in the Spanish town of Linares and from February 23 until March 10 2005. During each round one player rests, and in addition there are full rest days on March 1st and 7th. The games start at 15:30h local time (CET = GMT 14:30h = 9:30 a.m. NY) in the Hotel Anibal. Live coverage of the event is expected on the official web site and on Playchess.com. We will be reporting daily on our news page.

Round two

It didn't take long for Vishy Anand to settle in. He was the unfortunate player to get a wasted rest day to start the event. (Daily Dirt wag Greg Koster suggested that this was done by the Spanish organizers so Paco Vallejo could be said to be ahead of Anand in Linares, if only for a day. That makes about as much sense as any reason for having seven players.) Waiting for Anand was Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian who had taken the lead by beating Adams in round one. It took a while, but Anand cleared that up by winning a very complicated game to take the lead as the only player with a plus score after two rounds.

Adams was content to lick his wounds and agree to an 18-move draw against Peter Leko, going only a few moves beyond theory. Not that I'm interested in being fair, but to be fair they spent quite a lot of time on the game, particularly Leko. Adams avoided the Marshall Gambit, a favorite of both players. So far in Linares the Hungarian is getting more respect than a rabid Doberman with an Uzi. In round one Kasparov accepted his draw offer despite having an extra pawn in an unclear position with plenty of play. Today Leko got a fairly easy draw ahead of his battle royal with Anand tomorrow.

Top seed Garry Kasparov was once again unable to take the full point

As for Kasparov, perhaps his premature draw with Leko was meant to avoid what happened today against Kasimdzhanov. He nursed a superior position into an exchange advantage and a 30-minute lead on the clock. We then saw what we saw happen to him several times in Linares last year. Kasparov began to spend a lot of time in positions with several good continuations. It's as if his usual obsession with always wanting to play the best move has twisted into a fear of making a bad move and spoiling a good position.

Kasparov's 30 minute advantage dwindled as move 40 approached. He spent over 10 of them on a harmless repetition on move 27. If we know anything about Kasimdzhanov it's that the young Uzbekistani has no fear, practically never blunders, and that he is one of the premier speed players in the game. He bashed out his moves until the players were almost even on the clock. Kasparov's moves looked a little frantic as he gave up most of his advantage while trying to swap off the black rook. By the time he succeeded the position was drawn.

India's Vishy Anand outplayed Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the endgame

Topalov was making a bid to beat Kramnik and Anand with black in a month's time and there were chances for both sides during this tremendously imbalanced game. The opening was sharp, both kings were in play, and both sides got large packs of passed pawns. Topalov's loose play in the ending gave Anand good winning chances, but soon it looked like s sure draw.

If Anand has any weakness perceptible to man or machine it is a tendency to play too quickly when he has an advantage. The combination of speed and advantage is usually devastating, but sometimes he lets the fish off the hook. GM Yasser Seirawan, commentating on the game in Playchess.com, was surprised by a few of Vishy's strong moves at first and then was more surprised by a few weak ones! This time Topalov jumped right back on the hook with 45...Rxc5? and was lost.

Anand,V (2786) - Topalov,V (2757) [B90]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (2), 24.02.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.g4 h6 9.Qd2 b4 10.Na4 Nbd7 11.0-0-0 Ne5 12.b3 d5 13.Bf4 Bd6 14.Bxe5 Bxe5 15.Nc6 Qc7 16.Nxe5 Qxe5 17.Qxb4 dxe4 18.Nb6 Rb8 19.Kb1 Qc7 20.Qa4+ Kf8 21.Nxc8 Rxc8 22.Qc4 Qxc4 23.Bxc4 a5 24.Ba6 Rb8 25.fxe4 h5 26.gxh5 Nxe4 27.Rd4 Nf6 28.Be2 Nxh5 29.Rh4 g6 30.Rg1 Ke7 31.Ra4 Ra8 32.Bf3 Ra7 33.Rg5 f5 34.Rxg6 Kf7 35.Rg2 Nf6 36.Re2 Rh3 37.Bh1 Ng4 38.Kb2 Kf6 39.Bg2 Rxh2 40.Bf3 Rxe2 41.Bxe2 Ne3 42.c4 e5 43.c5 e4 44.b4 Rc7 45.bxa5.

Here 45...Ke5 46.a6 Ra7 47.c6 Nd5 48.Bc4 Nb6 liquidates into an easily drawn rook endgame, but Topalov played the careless 45...Rxc5? Now he has a serious problem with Anand's a-pawn: 46.a6 Nd5 47.a7 Nc7 48.a8Q Nxa8 49.Rxa8 White is a piece up for a pawn, but he must stop the two black passers. 49...f4 50.Rf8+ Ke5 51.Bg4 f3 52.Rf5+ Kd4 53.Rxc5 Kxc5 54.Kc3 Kb5 55.Kd2 f2.

56.Be2+! The king must protect the a-pawn! After 56.Ke2 e3 57.Be6 Kb4 58.Bd5 Ka3 Black simply shuffles his king between a3 and b4, and White cannot make any progress. Kb4 57.Kc2 Ka3 58.Kb1 e3 59.Ka1 1-0.

Kasparov,G (2804) - Kasimdzhanov,R (2678) [C42]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (2), 24.02.2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2 0-0 10.a3 Nc6 11.cxd5 Qxd5 12.Nc3 Nxc3 13.bxc3 Bf5 14.Re1 Bf6 15.Bf4 Na5 16.Bf1 c5 17.Be5 cxd4 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Nxd4 Bg6 20.h4 Rad8 21.Qa4 Qc5 22.Qb4 Rd5 23.g4 h5 24.Bg2 hxg4 25.Bxd5 Qxd5 26.Qe7 (26.Re7!? was an interesting alternative) 26...Qd8 27.Qb4 Qd5 28.Qe7 Qd8 29.Qxd8 Rxd8 30.Re7 Rc8 31.Rc1 Kg7 32.Rd1 f5 33.Ne6+ Kf6 34.Rc7 Rh8 35.Nf4 Rxh4 36.Kg2?! [36.Rd5] 36...Kg5 37.Nxg6 fxg6

On the server the heavily-armed spectators groaned when Kasparov played 38.Rh1 in Kasimdzhanov's time trouble. Their Fritzes, Juniors and Shredders were all screaming for 38.Rd5, and the evaluation of the engines took a dive after Kasparov's move. The position needs to be analysed more deeply, but it did appear that 38.Rd5, while certainly more promising, does not yield a crystal-clear win, for instance 38...b6 39.Rxa7 Rh3 40.Rc7 Nb3 41.Rd6 Nc5 42.Rxb6 Nd3 certainly does not lead to the full point. 38...Rxh1 39.Kxh1 Kf4 40.Kg2 Ke4 41.Kg3 b5 42.Rxa7 Nc4 43.Ra6 Kd3 44.Kf4 Kxc3 45.Rxg6 Nxa3 46.Kxf5 Nc4 47.Ke4 Nd2+ 48.Ke3 Nc4+ 49.Ke2 b4 50.Rxg4 b3 51.Kd1 Nb2+ ½-½. A very frustrating draw for the top seed, who has so far has nailed just one point to the scoreboard after getting two very promising positions.

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Current standing

Scores Anand +1 Topalov 0 Kasparov 0 Peter Leko 0 Kasimdzhanov 0 Vallejo 0 Adams –1

• All games so far in PGN

The watch is off, the game developted well, but once again just a draw

Peter Leko strolls while Michael Adam thinks

Commentators Jorge Morales and Leontxo Garcia

Photos by Jesús J. Boyero

Schedule

Links

• Official web site
• All ChessBase reports
• ChessBase reports on Linares 2004
• ChessBase reports on Linares 2003