Linares R14: All games drawn, Grischuk wins on tiebreak

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 fourteen report (final)

Wang Yue at the start of the final round. The Chinese GM is very professional and
always looks into the camera when you point it at him. Thank you, Yue!

Vishy Anand, who will not remember this year's Linares event fondly

Levon Aronian, who is always humorous and affable, even after a painful defeat

Leinier Dominguez with possibly the most precise piece adjustment at the start of a game

Vassily Ivanchuk, preparing his attempt to win Linares for the fourth time in twenty years (he won the tournament outright in 1989, 1991 and 1995).

Ivanchuk plays 3...a6 in his game against Cuban grandmaster Dominguez

One of the key games of the last round: Levon Aronian vs Alexander Grischuk

Magnus Carlsen about to play 5...Nxd5 against Vishy Anand

A view of the playing hall during the last round

The game between these two was the first to end in a draw

Try as he migh Vassily Ivanchuk could find no way to score a full point

The last game to end – Alexander Grischuk took a draw in a slightly better position

Thank heavens for these two in the press room: Aruna Anand and Maite Lopez

All pictures by Frederic Friedel in Linares

Final standings

Please note: Alexander Grischuk has won the event on the Linares tiebreak system, which awards victory to the player who has more wins (Ivanchuk would have won it on traditional tiebreak points, as shown in the table above). Also note that Teimour Radjabov is fifth in the official table, not sixth as in our table, which is automatically generated by ChessBase. Here are the official final standings:

Video reports by Europe Echecs

Video reports and interviews are now being provided by Vijay Kumar for Europe Echecs

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site (Spanish language) All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site as well as on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.

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