The XXII Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez "Ciudad de Linares",
a category 20 double round robin, beings today. The seven participants
are Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Peter Leko, Michael
Adams, Francisco Vallejo Pons and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
The tournament is being held in the Spanish town of Linares and will last
from February 23 (first round) until March 10 (14th round) 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.
The participants at the drawing of lots on Tuesday: Francisco Vallejo Pons,
Veselin Topalov, Peter Leko, Garry Kasparov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Viswanathan
Anand and Michael Adams.
Group photo with sponsors and organisers [Photos by Jesús J. Boyero]
| Round 1 (Wednesday,
February 23, 2005) |
| Veselin Topalov |
|
Michael Adams |
| Peter Leko |
|
Garry Kasparov |
| Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
|
Francisco Vallejo |
| Games – Report |
|
The results, games and report will be posted tonight.
Links to previous Linares reports
History of Linares
In the following we bring you a brief synopsis of all previous 21 Linares
tournaments, starting very modestly in 1978 and building up to the high-category
double round robins we have seen in the last years. We invite you to study
the data provided below – anyone who owns the Big or Mega Database
2005 can also consult the games – and to send us any observations you
may have. We are looking for factoids, snippets of information that are interesting.
Natural candidates are: who won Linares most often? Who scored the highest
performance? Which top player fared worst? Which top player never managed
to win? Who won the most and who the fewest games? Et cetera, anything that
catches your eye or your imagination. We will publish historical factoids
sent in by you, and will award a prize – a ChessBase program signed
by participants of Linares 2005 – for the most interesting submissions.
Please use our special Linares
2005 feedback form to write to us. Do not change the subject
line.
Linares is an Andalusian city, built around metal mining and heavy industry.
In 1978 a master chess tournament was held there and labelled Ciudad de
Linares. It was a fairly modest eventm won by the Swedish master Jaan
Eslon (Elo 2365).
A year later it had mutated to a grandmaster event and hat Viktor Kortchnoi
participating and American GM Larry Christiansen winning. We do not have all
the games of that tournament.
Linares 2nd 1979
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1 Christiansen * 0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 8
2 Kortschnoj 1 * 0 1 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 7½
3 Rivas ½ 1 * 0 0 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 7½
4 Castro 0 0 1 * ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 7½
5 Eslon 0 0 1 ½ * ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 5½
6 Sahovic ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 5
7 Marovic 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 5
8 Calvo 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 1 * 0 ½ 1 1 5
9 Ermenkov ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 * ½ 0 ½ 4½
10 Knezevic ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 4
11 Bellon 0 0 0 0 0 1 ½ 0 1 ½ * ½ 3½
12 Visier 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * 3 |
In 1980 the Ciudad de Linares found an active and enthusiastic sponsor,
the chain store magnate Luis Rentero Suárez, who revamped the event
by raising the category dramatically, inviting Karpov, Christiansen, Larsen,
Christiansen, Kavalek, Ljubojevic and Gligoric. A total of twelve grandmasters
participated. Karpov and Christiansen came equal first.
The fourth Linares tournament in 1983 was won by Boris Spassky ahead of Karpov
and Andersson. Tal was originally invited but was replaced by Geller. The prize
for first place was $6000. The weather was cold, the playing hall had no heating
system (not normally required in Linares) and many players caught the flu.
In 1985 Karpov could not participate because of his marathon world championship
match against Kasparov. Ljubojevic and Hübner tied for first. 59% of the
games were drawn, 17 in 22 moves or less, six in under 14 moves. Luis Rentero
Suárez was furious and started a crusade against short draws that lasted
almost two decades.
There was no Linares tournament in 1986, and in 1987 the city hosted a candidates’
match. The next Ciudad de Linares was held in 1988, for the first
time in the luxurious Hotel Anibal, which was later bough by Luis Rentero.
For the first time a woman participated, Maia Chiburdanidze, faring disastrously.
The event was won convincingly by the Dutch chess wizzard Jan Timman.
Originally Kortchnoi was invited to play in Linares, but he left he found
that the infamous Soviet chess functionary Baturinsky chief arbiter. Ivanchuk
played for the first time and won the tournament ahead of Karpov.
1990 was the first time that Kasparov, who had won the world championship
title five years earlier, participated in Linares. He received a $30,000 appearance
fee and won the event. Rentero intensified his campaign against short draws
and drove Spassky to the verge of a nervous breakdown with his threats.
In 1991 the event was increased in size to 14 players. Rentero continued to
apply pressure against short draws, paying player an extra $2000 if they averaged
more than 40 moves over the entire event. This worked wonders. Only 38 of the
91 games were undecided, and none was drawn in less than 22 moves.Vishy Anand
played for the first time in Linares, Ivanchuk won the event ahead of Kasparov,
Gata Kamsky came last.
In 1992 all players ranked 1-10 in the world appeared in Linares. Kasparov
was in great fighting spirit and won the event two points ahead of the field.
Equal second was Jan Timman, who played some of the most interesting games.
1993 saw Kramnik participating for the first time, in a field that consisted
of eleven players originating from the Russian republics. One of the three
"foreigners", Vishy Anand, came equal second. Kasparov won the event
for a third time.
The 1994 Linares tournament was extraordinary because of the incredible performance
by Anatoly Karpov, who chalked up nine wins and no losses, while Kasparov faltered
against Lautier and Kramnik, ending joint second with Shirov. Karpov's 11/13
with an almost 3000 performance was the greatest triumph of his career.
In 1995 Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik did not participate. Karpov and Ivanchuk
dominated, with the Ukraine chess genius ending a full point ahead. It was
"Chucky's" third win in Linares.
After a one-year pause, in which the women's world championship was held,
the Ciudad de Linares continued in 1997 with the top three players,
Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik, who had distanced themselves from the rest of
the world in the Elo rankings. Kasparov and Kramnik were in superb form and
led together with 7.5/10 before the last round. In that round they clashed,
and Kasparov won the game, set and match.
In 1998 the format of the Linares tournament was changed. The number of players
was drastically reduced, and the event became a double round robin. Anand was
in great form and won Linares for the first time, in his sixth appearance.
This tournament was to be the qualifier for a new World Championship cycle
run by Rentero and others. Anand did not participate and so Shirov played Kramnik
for the right to challenge Kasparov. Shirov won, but the organisers were not
able to put together a final match against Kasparov.
In 1999 the top eight players in the world were present at the tournament,
which was completely dominated by Kasparov. The world champion finished a point
and a half ahead of the two crown princes (Anand and Kramnik), with a 2913
performance. It was Kasparov's fifth Linares cap. Luis Rentero was absent,
since he had been involved in a very serious car accident which almost cost
him his life.
In 2000 for the first time there were two winners, with exactly the same number
of board and tiebreak points. They split the prize money, and Kasparov allowed
Kramnik to take home the trophy. With Rentero still ailing 77% of the games
were drawn.
Linares 2001 took place without Anand or Kramnik, who had beaten Kasparov
in their world championship match. Karpov returning after a long pause, caused
by a feud with Rentero. Kasparov won with a three point margin, all other players
scored 4.5/7.
The newly crown FIDE knockout world champion Ruslan Ponomariov was invited
to Linares in 2002. Contrary to the expectation of most experts he played very
well, bowing only to Kasparov in the final table. Garry Kasparov won the event
for an eighth time, a point and a half ahead of the field.
Peter Leko was on his way to joining the exclusive gang-of-three, and in 2003
he cemented his claim with a joint first ahead of Kasparov and Anand. In fact
Leko was declared the winner because he had a greater number of wins than Kramnik
– Rentero was recovering from his accident, draws were once again being
growled at.
2004 was the most frustrating year for Luis Rentero. 33 out of 42 games (=
78.6%) were drawn, six were won with white and three with black. Vladimir Kramnik
remained undefeated and won two games to take first prize. Kasparov failed
to win Linare for the fifth time in 13 appearances.
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