Linares R8: Vallejo chalks up first win

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 eight

Until this round local Spanish hero Francisco ("Paco") Vallejo Pons had not won a single game, but lost three. And his opponent, FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, had not lost any, while not winning any either. So it was a little like the resistable force meeting the immovable object. But young Paco surprised everybody with a novelt in the Queen's Gambit, which won him a pawn, the edge, a big advantage and finally the endgame and the game itself. In spite of the three losses he is now just half a point behind Kasimdzhanov and Michael Adams.

Michael Adams, who is playing below his nominal 2741 rating, looked very much like a winner in round eight, gaining a considerable advantage from a well-played opening (Sicilian Scheveningen). But slowly the position and the advantage were eroded, especially after the queens were exchanged at move 30, and the game ended peacefully just before the time control.

Garry Kasparov uncorked a novelty, at move 12, in an opening he had already played against Peter Lekp in 2002. His temporary pawn sacrifice gave him a big advantage, at least in the eyes of almost 2000 spectators on the Playchess server. But while the many GMs there were searching for ways to clinch the game for Kasparov, Peter Leko kept playing with the precision of the Hungarian chess genius that he is, frustrating Kasparov's every attempt to find a winning line. The game was in fact the first to end, with a draw on move 31.

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Current standing

Scores Kasparov +2  Anand +1  Topalov +1  Leko 0  Kasimdzhanov –1  Adams –1  Vallejo –2

• All games so far in PGN

Schedule

Links

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