Leon Masters with Dominguez, Shirov, Maghsoodloo and Santos

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
7/9/2020 – The corona pandemic did not prevent the organizers of the Leon Masters (Magistral Ciudad de León) from launching the 33rd edition of the traditional yearly event. The main event, to be played on July 10-12, is a four-player knockout with two Spanish players and a couple of international stars. In the semifinals, Alexei Shirov will face local hero Jaime Santos, while Leinier Dominguez will play defending champion Parham Mahgsoodloo. Given the circumstances, the games will be played online. | Photos: Official site

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The tradition lives on

Magistral Ciudad de Leon 2020The “Magistral Ciudad León” will take place for a 33rd consecutive year, this time on the online platform chess.com. A long-standing tradition, it has seen some of the strongest players of our era winning the event: Veselin Topalov, Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand (nine-time winner), Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and two participants of this year’s edition — Alexei Shirov and defending champion Parham Maghsoodloo.

Although the players will not meet at the “Auditorio Ciudad de León” for obvious reasons, the same format from recent years will be in place. Two Spanish players — Alexei Shirov and Jaime Santos — will be joined by Leinier Dominguez and Parham Maghsoodloo in a knockout tournament that will last three days.

Santos, who was born in Leon, is actually the second highest-rated player in the event if we go by rapid ratings. Both Shirov and Maghsoodloo ar higher rated than Santos in the standard ranking (classical), but the Leonese has proven that rapid chess is his forte — in fact, Santos drew Anand and Paco Vallejo in the rapid section of the semifinals in 2017 and 2018, but ended up losing on tiebreaks.

After Thursday’s drawing of lots, the pairings for the semifinals look as follows (all rounds start at 17:30 CEST):

  • Friday: Shirov vs. Santos
  • Saturday: Dominguez vs. Maghsoodloo
  • Sunday: Final

Each match will consist of four rapid games (20 minutes for the whole game, with 10-second increments from move one). In case of a draw, two blitz games will follow (5 minutes + 3-second increments), and if the tie has not been broken the match winner will be decided in Armageddon (White gets 6 minutes, Black gets 5 minutes and draw odds). 

The games will be broadcast with commentary on the official YouTube channel. If you understand Spanish, you can also enjoy the 29-minute presentation of the event:



All games from the 2019 edition

  • Semifinal 1:  Vassil Ivanchuk 2½ : 1½ Nihal Sarin
  • Semifinal 2:  Parham Maghsoodloo 2½ : 1½ Jaime Santos
  • Final: Maghsoodloo 3 : 1 Ivanchuk
 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
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1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.cxd5 exd5 7.0-0 E14: Queen's Indian: Classical Variation (4 e3) Nbd7 7...Bd6 8.b3 Qe7 9.Nc3 a6 10.Bb2 Nbd7 11.Ne2 Ne4 12.Ng3 g6 13.Rc1 0-0 14.Qc2 a5 15.Rfd1 Nxg3 16.hxg3 1/2-1/2 (36) Vidit,S (2689) -Karjakin,S (2785) Doha 2016 8.b3 a6 9.Ba3N Predecessor: 9.Bb2 Bd6 10.Nc3 0-0 11.Rc1 Ne4 12.Ne2 Qf6 13.Ng3 Rfe8 14.Rc2 Re7 15.Qc1 Rae8 16.Ba3 Bxa3 17.Qxa3 Nxg3 18.hxg3 c5 1/2-1/2 (33) Moskalenko,A (2514)-Dgebuadze, A (2523) Lambsheim 2017 9...Bxa3 10.Nxa3 0-0 11.Rc1 Re8 12.Nb1 c5 13.Nbd2 Qe7 14.Qc2 Rac8
Hoping for ...cxd4. 15.Qb2 g6 16.Rc2 Nf8 17.Rfc1 Ne6 18.Bf1 Rc7 19.g3 Rec8 20.Bh3 h5 21.a3 Ng4 22.Bg2 cxd4 23.Rxc7 Rxc7 24.Rxc7 Qxc7 25.exd4 a5 26.Bf1 Nf6 27.Bh3 Qd6 28.Nf1 Ne4 29.Ne3 N6g5 30.Nxg5 Nxg5 31.Bg2 Nh7 32.Bf1 Ng5 33.Bg2 Nh7 34.b4 axb4 35.Qxb4 Qxb4 35...Qc7 with more complications. 36.h4 Nf6 37.Bf3 Kg7 38.Kg2 Kg8 36.axb4= Endgame KBN-KBN Nf6 37.f3 Kf8 The position is equal. 38.Bf1 Ke7 39.Kf2 Kd6 40.Ke1 Bc8 41.Kd2 Bd7 42.Nd1 Ne8 43.Nc3 Ng7 44.Bd3 Bf5 45.Ba6 Bd7 46.Bb7 Be6 47.Ba6 Bd7 48.Bf1 Nf5 49.Kd3 Ne7 50.Be2 Nc6 51.Nb5+ Ke7 52.Kc3 Nd8 53.Na3 Kd6 54.Nc2 Ne6 55.Ne3 Nc7 56.Kd2 Ne6 57.Kc3 Nc7 58.Bd3 Bb5 59.h4 Bxd3 60.Kxd3 Ne6 61.Nd1 f6 62.Ne3 b5 63.Kc3 Kc6 64.Kd3 Kd6 Accuracy: White = 58%, Black = 71%.
½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ivanchuk,V2684Nihal Sarin2610½–½2019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.1
Nihal Sarin2610Ivanchuk,V2684½–½2019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.2
Ivanchuk,V2684Nihal Sarin26101–02019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.3
Nihal Sarin2610Ivanchuk,V2684½–½2019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.4
Maghsoodloo,P2656Santos Latasa,J2594½–½2019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.1
Santos Latasa,J2594Maghsoodloo,P26560–12019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.2
Maghsoodloo,P2656Santos Latasa,J25941–02019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.3
Santos Latasa,J2594Maghsoodloo,P26561–02019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20191.4
Maghsoodloo,P2656Ivanchuk,V26841–02019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20192.1
Ivanchuk,V2684Maghsoodloo,P2656½–½2019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20192.2
Maghsoodloo,P2656Ivanchuk,V2684½–½2019XXXII Magistral Ciudad Leon 20192.3
Ivanchuk,V2684Maghsoodloo,P26560–1201932nd Leon GM 20192.4

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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