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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
coverage of the event is expected on the official
web site and on Playchess.com. We
will be reporting daily on our news page.
Round nine
Kasimdzhanov,R (2678) - Kasparov,G (2804) [D47]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (9), 04.03.2005
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5
8.Bd3 Bb7 9.0-0 a6 10.e4 c5 11.d5 Qc7 12.dxe6 fxe6 13.Bc2 c4 14.Nd4 Nc5 15.Be3
e5 16.Nf3 Be7 17.Ng5.
Here Kasparov unleashed a novely: 17...0-0. This move leaves
the e6 square open for a fork. Running the game through our top chess engines
we see that they too come to the conclusion that the position requires an exchange
sacrifice. Remarkably the most dauntless of them, compensation fetish Junior
9, finds the move in the first seconds of computation (and never prefers another
after that).
18.Bxc5. This removes the only cover for e6 18...Bxc5
19.Ne6 Qb6 20.Nxf8 Rxf8.
Kasimdzhanov realises he is in trouble, if only because Garry Kasparov has
played this line. Black is also playing quick and fast, so the Uzbek knows
this is not an impromptu over-the-board idea, but something Kasparov has analysed
in the peace and quite (except for the humming of the processor fan) of his
home.
21.Nd5 Bxd5 22.exd5 Bxf2+. The bishop cannot be taken: 23.Rxf2
Ng4 wins. 23.Kh1 e4 24.Qe2 e3. This constellation of a passed
pawn on e3, supported by and supporting a bishop on f2, is certainly a major
thorn in the white position. 25.Rfd1 Qd6 26.a4 g6 27.axb5 axb5 28.g3.
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On the Playchess server there were
almost two thousand spectators on this board, with a dozen grandmasters analysing
and speculating on the outcome. Yasser Seirawan was explaining things patiently,
with an anonymous (= shy) super-GM chipping in with suggestions. But at this
moment John Nunn, who had returned from one of his rare tournaments with the
obligatory flu, came in briefly to check the position. "Has anyone looked
at Nh5?" asked "Doccy" (John's handle on the server). Nobody
had, and everyone immediately did. And after everybody had checked everything
very carefully, us on the server with computers and Kasparov on the board with
is 100 billion processors, we all came to the conclusion that this was indeed
the winning line.
28...Nh5! 29.Qg4. This is where, in a basically winning postion
– e.g. 29...Qe5 does it in a slightly tedious fashion – Kasparov
played the proverbial "move for the audience". Everyone, especially
the chess engines, were enchanted: 29...Bxg3!! This move finished
off the opponent more ruthlessly: 30.hxg3 Nxg3+ 31.Kg2 Rf2+ 32.Kh3
Nf5 33.Rh1 h5 34.Qxg6+ Qxg6 35.Rhg1 Qxg1 36.Rxg1+ Kf7. With two extra
pawns and all the attacking weapons in his hands Black will have no problems
taking the point. Kasimdzhanov conceded: 0-1.
The other games were not quite as exciting: Veselin Topalov pushed and squeesed,
but could not get a full point of a tenaciously defending Anand, who at times
appeared to be in serious trouble. In Leko vs Adams the latter caught our attention
with a knight sacrifice on move 19.
Leko,P (2749) - Adams,Mi (2741) [C42]
XXII SuperGM Linares ESP (9), 04.03.2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Re1 Bg4
9.c3 f5 10.Qb3 0-0 11.Nbd2 Na5 12.Qc2 Nc6 13.b4 a6 14.a4 Bd6 15.Rb1 Re8 16.b5
axb5 17.axb5 Na5 18.Ne5 Bxe5 19.dxe5
19...Nxf2!? And interesting turn with made Leko work hard
to avoid pitfalls. But once again the classical chess world championship challenger
played with the accuracy of a Dutch chess engine and held his enterprising
opponent to a draw by perpetual check. 20.Kxf2 Qh4+ 21.Kf1 Qxh2 22.Ba3
Re6 23.Qa2 Rd8 24.Bc5 Rh6 25.e6 Qf4+ 26.Kg1 Qh2+ 27.Kf1 Qf4+ 28.Kg1 Qh2+ 29.Kf1
½-½
Round 9 (Friday, March 4,
2005) |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
0-1
|
Garry Kasparov |
Peter Leko |
½-½
|
Michael Adams |
Veselin Topalov |
½-½
|
Viswanathan Anand |
|
|
Round 10 (Saturday, March
5, 2005) |
Viswanathan Anand |
|
Peter Leko |
Michael Adams |
|
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Garry Kasparov |
|
Francisco Vallejo |
Games – Report |
|
Current standing
|
Scores
Kasparov |
+3 |
Anand |
+1 |
Topalov |
+1 |
Leko |
0 |
Adams |
–1 |
Kasimdzhanov |
–2 |
Vallejo |
–2 |
|
Schedule
Round 1 (Wednesday, February
23, 2005) |
Veselin Topalov |
1-0 |
Michael Adams |
Peter Leko |
½-½ |
Garry Kasparov |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
½-½ |
Francisco Vallejo |
|
|
Round 2 (Thursday,
February 24, 2005) |
Garry Kasparov |
½-½ |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Michael Adams |
½-½ |
Peter Leko |
Viswanathan Anand |
1-0 |
Veselin Topalov |
|
|
Round 3 (Friday, February
25, 2005) |
Peter Leko |
½-½ |
Viswanathan Anand |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
½-½ |
Michael Adams |
Francisco Vallejo |
0-1 |
Garry Kasparov |
|
|
Round 4 (Saturday, February
26, 2005) |
Michael Adams |
1-0 |
Francisco Vallejo |
Viswanathan Anand |
½-½ |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Veselin Topalov |
½-½ |
Peter Leko |
|
|
Round 5 (Sunday, February
27, 2005) |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
½-½ |
Veselin Topalov |
Francisco Vallejo |
½-½ |
Viswanathan Anand |
Garry Kasparov |
1-0 |
Michael Adams |
|
|
Round 6 (Monday, February
28, 2005) |
Viswanathan Anand |
½-½ |
Garry Kasparov |
Veselin Topalov |
1-0 |
Francisco Vallejo |
Peter Leko |
½-½ |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
|
|
Round 7 (Wednesday, March
2, 2005) |
Francisco Vallejo |
½-½ |
Peter Leko |
Garry Kasparov |
½-½ |
Veselin Topalov |
Michael Adams |
½-½ |
Viswanathan Anand |
|
|
Round 8 (Thursday, March
3, 2005) |
Michael Adams |
½-½ |
Veselin Topalov |
Garry Kasparov |
½-½ |
Peter Leko |
Francisco Vallejo |
1-0 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
|
|
Round 9 (Friday, March 4,
2005) |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
0-1 |
Garry Kasparov |
Peter Leko |
½-½ |
Michael Adams |
Veselin Topalov |
½-½ |
Viswanathan Anand |
|
|
Round 10
(Saturday, March 5, 2005) |
Viswanathan Anand |
|
Peter Leko |
Michael Adams |
|
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Garry Kasparov |
|
Francisco Vallejo |
Games
– Report |
|
Round 11
(Sunday, March 6, 2005) |
Francisco Vallejo |
|
Michael Adams |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
|
Viswanathan Anand |
Peter Leko |
|
Veselin Topalov |
Games
– Report |
|
Round 12
(Tuesday, March 8, 2005) |
Veselin Topalov |
|
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Viswanathan Anand |
|
Francisco Vallejo |
Michael Adams |
|
Garry Kasparov |
Games
– Report |
|
Round 13
(Wednesday, March 9, 2005) |
Garry Kasparov |
|
Viswanathan Anand |
Francisco Vallejo |
|
Veselin Topalov |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
|
Peter Leko |
Games
– Report |
|
Round 14
(Thursday, March 10, 2005) |
Peter Leko |
|
Francisco Vallejo |
Veselin Topalov |
|
Garry Kasparov |
Viswanathan Anand |
|
Michael Adams |
Games
– Report |
|
Links