Linares R11: Anand in hot pursuit

by ChessBase
3/6/2005 – Today Vishy Anand proved that he is not taking Kasparov's victory in Linares for granted. With a convincing black victory over FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov the world's number two player came within striking distance. Tomorrow we travel to Linares, from Tuesday on we bring you live reports from Spain.

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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 eleven

The first game to end was Vallejo vs Adams, with neither player showing much inclination to do anything serious about their negative scores. The Hedgehog ended in a 29-move draw when Vallejo declined to play for more.

Leko-Topalov was only 19 moves long, but they took longer to execute. It was mainly Veselin Topalov who did the pondering, clearly looking for a way to perhaps score a point and keep in shouting distance to Kasparov. He was tempted by some subtle weaknesses in White's position, but when things came to a head Peter Leko coolly offered a draw and the Bulgarian accepted. With the same number of games and three rounds to go Topalov now trails the leading Kasparov by 1½ points.

Vishy Anand, who was in a similar position to Topalov, was having none of it. With the black pieces he went after Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who always looked like he would be completely satisfied with a draw.

Kasimdzhanov,R (2678) - Anand,V (2786) [B50]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (11), 06.03.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 Nf6 4.Be2 Bg4 5.d3 e6 6.Nbd2 Nc6 7.Nf1 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.Qa4 Bh5 10.Ng3 Nb6 11.Qd1 Bg6 12.0-0 Be7 13.a4 0-0 14.a5 Nd5 15.Qa4 Qc7 16.d4 cxd4 17.Nxd4 Nxd4 18.Qxd4 f5 19.Qa4 Rad8 20.Rd1 f4 21.Ne4 Qe5 22.Bf3 b5 23.Qc2 Nf6 24.Nxf6+ Qxf6 25.Qb3 Rxd1+ 26.Qxd1 Rd8 27.Qe2 Bd3 28.Qe1 e5 29.Be2 Bxe2 30.Qxe2 e4 31.g3 e3 32.fxe3

Kasimdzhanov is already in big trouble. Anand pushes his f-pawn like a thorn into White's flesh: 32...f3! 33.Qxb5 f2+ 34.Kg2 Rf8 35.Qd5+ Kh8 36.Kf1 Qh6 37.Bd2 Qh3+ 38.Qg2 Qf5 0-1. Interestingly White's queen has made a total of 14 moves, which represents 37% of all moves played. Watch its path when you replay the game on our JavaScript board.

Round 11 (Sunday, March 6, 2005)
Francisco Vallejo
½-½
Michael Adams
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
0-1
Viswanathan Anand
Peter Leko
½-½
Veselin Topalov
Round 12 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)
Veselin Topalov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Viswanathan Anand
Francisco Vallejo
Michael Adams
Garry Kasparov
Games – Report
Current standing
Scores
Kasparov
+4
Anand
+2
Topalov
+1
Leko
0
Adams
–1
Kasimdzhanov
–3
Vallejo
–3

Note that Monday is a free day. From Tuesday onwards we will be reporting live from Linares.
That includes audio and video commentary from the playing venue on Playchess.com.


Schedule

Round 1 (Wednesday, February 23, 2005)
Veselin Topalov
1-0
Michael Adams
Peter Leko
½-½
Garry Kasparov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
½-½
Francisco Vallejo
Round 2 (Thursday, February 24, 2005)
Garry Kasparov
½-½
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Michael Adams
½-½
Peter Leko
Viswanathan Anand
1-0
Veselin Topalov
Round 3 (Friday, February 25, 2005)
Peter Leko
½-½
Viswanathan Anand
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
½-½
Michael Adams
Francisco Vallejo
0-1
Garry Kasparov
Round 4 (Saturday, February 26, 2005)
Michael Adams
1-0
Francisco Vallejo
Viswanathan Anand
½-½
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Veselin Topalov
½-½
Peter Leko
Round 5 (Sunday, February 27, 2005)
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
½-½
Veselin Topalov
Francisco Vallejo
½-½
Viswanathan Anand
Garry Kasparov
1-0
Michael Adams
Round 6 (Monday, February 28, 2005)
Viswanathan Anand
½-½
Garry Kasparov
Veselin Topalov
1-0
Francisco Vallejo
Peter Leko
½-½
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Round 7 (Wednesday, March 2, 2005)
Francisco Vallejo
½-½
Peter Leko
Garry Kasparov
½-½
Veselin Topalov
Michael Adams
½-½
Viswanathan Anand
Round 8 (Thursday, March 3, 2005)
Michael Adams
½-½
Veselin Topalov
Garry Kasparov
½-½
Peter Leko
Francisco Vallejo
1-0
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Round 9 (Friday, March 4, 2005)
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
0-1
Garry Kasparov
Peter Leko
½-½
Michael Adams
Veselin Topalov
½-½
Viswanathan Anand
Round 10 (Saturday, March 5, 2005)
Viswanathan Anand
½-½
Peter Leko
Michael Adams
½-½
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Garry Kasparov
1-0
Francisco Vallejo
Round 11 (Sunday, March 6, 2005)
Francisco Vallejo
½-½
Michael Adams
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
0-1
Viswanathan Anand
Peter Leko
½-½
Veselin Topalov
Round 12 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)
Veselin Topalov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Viswanathan Anand
Francisco Vallejo
Michael Adams
Garry Kasparov
Games – Report
Round 13 (Wednesday, March 9, 2005)
Garry Kasparov
Viswanathan Anand
Francisco Vallejo
Veselin Topalov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Peter Leko
Games – Report
Round 14 (Thursday, March 10, 2005)
Peter Leko
Francisco Vallejo
Veselin Topalov
Garry Kasparov
Viswanathan Anand
Michael Adams
Games – Report

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