XXVI Linares 2009
This year the Linares 2009 tournament is being staged only in Spain –
in the previous three years the first half was in Morelia, Mexico, and next
year the first half will probably be in the Arab Emirates. The 2009 event goes
from February 19th to March 7th, with three rest days. The prize fund is 314,000
Euros, with the winner getting 100,000 Euros, followed by 75,000 and 50,000
Euros for second and third place. There are no appearance fees for the players,
so the motivation to fight for points may be unusually high. The venue is el
Teatro Cervantes de Linares, the starting time of the games is 16:00h (4 p.m.)
Spanish/European time.
Round nine report
Round 9: Sunday, 1 March 2009 |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
½-½ |
Teimour Radjabov |
Wang Yue |
½-½ |
Alexander Grischuk |
Leinier Domínguez |
0-1 |
Magnus Carlsen |
Levon Aronian |
½-½ |
Vishy Anand |
|
Before the start of round nine in el Teatro Cervantes de Linares
The Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese Chess Federation and the Mayor of
Linares start the round
The Deputy Secretary General is Tian Hongwei, but we know her fondly as Abigail
and have learnt a lot about Chinese names and customs from her. The Mayor or
Alcalde of Linares is Juan Fernández, a very friendly, jovial man who
obviously loves chess. The city gives this tournament its full backing.
This was an Open Catalan, with none of the players getting into any trouble.
Draw in 30 moves.
A Queen's Gambit Accepted which ended in a lifeless draw after 17 moves
The demo screens showing the game positions and video from the playing hall
Commentary by GM Mihail Marin
Please note that due to tournament games, coupled with illness, our regular
Linares commentator, GM Dorian Rogozenco, will not be able to provide us with
further annotations, probably for the rest of the event. GM Mihail Marin, who
annotated the FIDE Candidates Match Topalov vs Kamsky will take over with one
game per round.
Dominguez Perez,L (2717) - Carlsen,M (2776) [B78]
XXVI SuperGM Linares ESP (9), 01.03.2009 [Mihail Marin]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2
0-0 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0
I cannot avoid being invaded by strong nostalgy whenever I watch a Dragon between
top players. More than 15 years ago, I took up this romantic opening as my main
weapon against 1.e4, despite theory's marked skepticism and obtained more than
satisfactory results with it. On one of my bedroom's walls is hanging a painting
which I earned as a beauty prize in a Spanish tournament, for a sacrificial
Dragon win... And then after two years of romance, something awfull happened.
Facing unexpected problems in his trademark Scheweningen Sicilian during the
match against Anand, Kasparov unexpectedely switched to the Dragon. This proved
to be a very inspired decision, allowing him to save his supreme crown. For
me as a Dragon player, this was the end. Everybody started playing and analysing
it and I felt that it had ceased to be MY opening... 10...Rb8!? As far
as I know, this is the first time that Carlsen plays the Chinese variation.
His previous Dragon game against Lenier continued with 10...Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.Kb1
a6 (Practically, a Carlsen patent) 13.h4 h5 and now White unleashed the dangerous
14.g4 Black managed to draw in Dominguez-Carlsen, Biel 2008, but later that
year Topalov managed to break Carlsen's defence in the Grand Slam final. 11.Bb3
Na5
12.Bh6. Carlsen had had this position, but sitting on the opposite
side of the board. He carried out a highly original regrouping with 12.Kb1 b5
13.h4 Nc4 14.Bxc4 bxc4 15.Ka1 h5 16.Rb1 White eventually won in Carlsen-Radjabov,
Bilbao 2008, but the game was far from clear. 12...Bxh6 13.Qxh6 b5
14.g4. For a while, the sharp attacking move 14.h4 has been the main
stream of theory, but later it was discovered that it leads to some sort of
forced draw by perpetual check, with the white king wandering all over the board
and analysis reaching the 40th move or so. The text move deprives the enemy
bishop from the f5-square in view of the structural modifications that will
follow. 14...Nxb3+ 15.Nxb3 b4 16.Nd5 Nxd5 17.exd5. Instead of trying
to mate the enemy king, White intends to setup pressure along the central files,
in order to take advantage of the backward e7-pawn. 17...Rb6!? Black
over-defends the d6-pawn in order to enable e7-e5, thus eliminating the weakness
from e7. This move had been played only once before, by a young player rated
more than 600 points below Carlsen... 18.Rhe1. White consequently carries
out his plan. The aforementioned game continued with 18.h4 , Maslak-Porat, Pardubice
2008. 18...e5 19.dxe6 fxe6
Despite opposite castles, play has a pronounced strategic character. The mutual
attacking actions against the enemy kings will be more of auxiliary operations,
aiming to create some aditional weaknesses, rather than becoming a purpose in
themselves. It may seem that Black has weakened his central pawns even more,
but the white knight is not sufficiently well placed to put pressure against
them. Moreover, the opening of the f-file has turned the f3-pawn into a chronic
weakness. We can evaluate that the result of opening is satisfactory for Black.
20.Re3 Rf7 21.Nd2 d5 22.Nb3 Qc7 23.Kb1 Rb8! The rook had done its job
along the sixth rank. By returning to the back rank it would allow Black put
the c2-pawn under pressure. 24.Rde1 Rc8
White has several ways to defend his pawn, but the problem is that this will
prevent him from keeping the enemy centre blocked. 25.R1e2. White fails
to stabilise the position with 25.Nd4 because of 25...Rf4 26.Rd3 e5 with a crushing
initiative for Black. 25...Qb6 26.h4. This is a desperate attempt to
change the course of the game. Unfortunately for him, White will not manage
to weaken the enemy king's defence in time. 26...d4 27.Re5 d3 28.cxd3 Rxf3
Black's initiative is very dangerous already, making the white king feel insecure.
29.d4. After this impulsive move, White finally gets into trouble. He
should have abandoned his attacking dreams and returned with the queen to the
defence with 29.Qd2 , but psychologycally this would have been quite a difficult
choice. 29...Bb5 30.R2e3 Bd3+ 31.Ka1 Qxd4!
The queen is taboo because of the back rank weakness, which leaves Black with
absolute domination in the centre. 32.Rxe6 Rf1+ 33.Re1 Qxg4. It frequently
happens in the Dragon that a failed white attack results in the loss of the
pawns involved in the process. 34.Rxf1 Qxe6 35.Nc5 Qe2 36.Rc1 Bf5 37.Qf4
a5 38.h5 Qe7 39.Qc4+ Be6 40.Qc2 Qg5 41.hxg6 hxg6
A fantastic position. Despite the considerable number of pieces left on board,
White is in zugzwang!! 42.a3. The knight is pinned, the queen and rook
are immobile because they have to defend their colleague and 42.Kb1? loses the
queen to 42...Bf5 . Apart from that, 42.b3 loses the knight to 42...Qe5+ 43.Qb2
Rxc5. 42...bxa3 43.Qc3. White has to give up the second pawn, because
43.bxa3 is met by the familiar 43...Qe5+ 44.Qb2 Rxc5 . 43...axb2+ 44.Kxb2
Qd5
With two extra-pawns and a safer king, Black has little trouble winning. 45.Rc2
a4 46.Ka1 a3 47.Qe3 Bf7 48.Qc3 g5 49.Qe3 Re8 50.Qc3 Re2 51.Nb3 Rxc2 52.Qxc2
Qe5+ 53.Kb1 Kg7 54.Qd2 Bxb3. There is no stalemate combination available.
therefore, White resigned. 0-1. [Click
to replay]
Current standings
Video reports by Europe Echecs
