Linares R6: Anand pressures Kasparov, Topalov wins

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 covereag of the event is expected on the official web site and on Playchess.com. We will be reporting daily on our news page.

Round six

With a dismal –2 score after five rounds the top Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo decided enough was enough and went after Veselin Topalov with the black pieces. For a while he wasn't doing too bad, either. Unfortunately the world's number three player is a red-blooded tactical player and soon had young Vallejo fighting for survival.

Topalov,V (2757) - Vallejo Pons,F (2686) [B90]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (6), 28.02.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.f3 Be6 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 11.g4 b5 12.g5 b4 13.Ne2 Ne8 14.f4 a5 15.f5 a4 16.fxe6 axb3 17.exf7+ Rxf7 18.Kb1 bxc2+ 19.Kxc2 Nb6 20.Nc1 d5 21.exd5 Nd6 22.Kb1 Rf3 23.h4 Na4 24.Qe2

The combinational intricacies of this game are so vast that we can only advise you to load it in Fritz and spend some time working out all the breath-taking lines. In the above position Vallejo, who was already in considerable trouble, jumped into the fire with 24...Rg3? The relentless Topalov went after the rook and refuted his opponent's escape route: 25.Bf2 Rc3. This is how Black had planned to escape: 26.bxc3 is impossible because of the fork 26...Nxc3+. But White parries this attach with counter-threats and wins the tactical melee that follows: 26.Qxe5 Nxb2 27.Bd4 Bf8 28.Kxb2 Rf3 29.Bd3 Kh8 30.Qe2 Rf4 31.Qh5 Nf5 32.g6 1-0.

In the Marshall Gambit game between Peter Leko and Rustam Kasimdzhanov White was typically a pawn up for most of the game. But Kasim once again demonstrated his extraordinary resilience, especiall when everything came down to a double-rook ending in which Leko still had a pawn. The classical chess world champion challenger spent 30 moves looking for a win, but his Uzbek opponent played flawlessly to score his sixth draw in succession. Leko has five draws from five game.

The most intensely watched game (especially after Topalov-Vallejo finished) was the summit encounter Anand vs Kasparov. The spectators on the Internet were initially mystified by the Sveshnikov that Anand appeared to be playing with black. But a few phone calls revealed that the tournament web site had got it wrong: naturally it was Kasparov playing the Svesnikov. Anand played a move, 19.Qa4, which we only found in some obscure corresponcence games. It became quickly clear to everyone that the two top seeds were not going to take a restful draw, but fight to the death. And it was Anand who went on the offensive with a pair of beautiful pawns on the queenside. For the first time in this event Kasparov was not the dominating force in a game. In fact he was on the ropes, and 1800 spectators on Playchess.com, amongst them a dozen GMs, were reckoning with Anand's first classical chess victory over his nemesis since their 1995 world championship match in New York.

Anand,V (2786) - Kasparov,G (2804) [B33]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (6), 28.02.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c3 0-0 12.Nc2 Bg5 13.a4 bxa4 14.Rxa4 a5 15.Bc4 Rb8 16.Ra2 Kh8 17.Nce3 g6 18.0-0 f5 19.Qa4 Bd7 20.Bb5 Rxb5 21.Qxb5 Nb4 22.Qxa5 Nxa2 23.Qxa2 fxe4 24.b4 Be6 25.c4 Qc8 26.Qb3 Kg7 27.Rb1 Rf7 28.Rd1 h5 29.Qc2 Qa8 30.h3 Bh4 31.Rf1 Qf8 32.b5 Bc8 33.Nc3 Bb7 34.Ned5.

Anand looks like the clear winner in this position, but Kasparov put us a tough defense. 34...Qc8 35.Qe2 Bxd5 36.Nxd5 Qc5 37.b6 Qd4 38.Qc2 Kh7 39.Kh2

And now comes the clincher, in time trouble one move before the time control: 39...Rxf2! 40.Rxf2 Bxf2 41.Qc1 e3 42.b7 Qa7 43.Qb1 e2 44.Ne7 (threatening 45.Qxg6+ Kh8 46.Qh6 mate) 44...Bg3+ draw because of perpetual check: 45.Kxg3 Qe3+ 46.Kh2 Qf4+ 47.Kg1 Qe3+ 48.Kh2. A very interesting battle between the two top players in the world.

Anand and Kasparov analysing after their game, with Kasparov's second Yuri Dokhian watching

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Current standing

Scores Kasparov +2  Anand +1  Topalov +1  Leko 0  Kasimdzhanov 0  Adams –1  Vallejo –3

• All games so far in PGN

Schedule

Links

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