Linares R3: Kasparov beats Vallejo with black

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 covereag of the event is expected on the official web site and on Playchess.com. We will be reporting daily on our news page.

Round three

The key game today was between local hero Francisco ("Paco") Vallejo Pons and the so far luckless top seed Garry Kasparov. As in his first two games Kasparov quickly went on the offensive ("equalize with black" does not seem to be part of his vocabulary) and was working with two bishops against his opponent's rook and knight when fate struck.

Vallejo Pons,F (2686) - Kasparov,G (2804) [D02]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (3), 25.02.2005
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 e6 3.c4 dxc4 4.e4 b5 5.a4 c6 6.axb5 cxb5 7.b3 Bb7 8.bxc4 Bxe4 9.cxb5 Nf6 10.Be2 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Nc3 Bb7 13.Bf4 Bb4 14.Na4 Nbd7 15.Qb3 Nd5 16.Bg5 Be7 17.Bd2 a6 18.b6 Bc6 19.Ne5 Nxe5 20.dxe5 Nxb6 21.Nxb6 Qxd2 22.Nxa8 Qxe2 23.Nc7 Qxe5 24.Qg3 Qf5 25.Rxa6 Be4 26.Ra7 Bc5

If you count material White has a rook and knight for two bishops and a pawn. Black is on the attack, but it is not clear how he intends to win – apart from making life as complicated as possible for his opponent. And after this attack on his rook Paco Vallejo promply goes astray: 27.Ra5? Just one step further, 27.Ra4, would have probably held the draw, but this "pin" is disastrous for the player delivering it. 27...Bxf2+ 28.Qxf2 Qxa5 and Black is simply two pawns up. Vallejo tries one more trick: 29.Nxe6.

Now Black cannot capture the knight (29...fxe6?? 30.Qxf8 mate), but he has a resource that Vallejo possibly overlooked when he played 27.Ra5. If you cannot see the move, with which Kasparov immediately ended the game, you can look it up in the game replay below.

Anand with black equalised and, around move 20, looked as though he was seeking revenge for the loss he had suffered to Leko in Wijk aan Zee. But the advantage was probably only optical and Anand quickly liquidated to a repetition and a draw in 24 moves.

FIDE champion rustam Kasimdzhanov and top British GM Michael Adams produced a fairly unentful draw in 27 moves.

Kasimdzhanov's second: German GM Dr Robert Hübner – all photos by Jesús J. Boyero

• Click here to replay today's games in a separate window.

Current standing

Scores Anand +1 Kasparov +1 Topalov 0 Leko 0 Kasimdzhanov 0 Vallejo –1 Adams –1

• All games so far in PGN

Schedule

Links

• Official web site
• All ChessBase reports
• ChessBase reports on Linares 2004
• ChessBase reports on Linares 2003