Ivanchuk also wins in León

After winning the M-Tel Masters, Vassily Ivanchuk added another trophy to his big collection: yesterday he beat world champion and rapid specialist Viswanathan Anand in the León final.

The 21st Torneo Magistral de Ajedrez Ciudad de León was held May 30-June 1 in the building of the Delegación Provincial de la Junta de Castilla y León, in León, Spain.

The rate of play was twenty minutes plus ten seconds increment. Anand reached the final on Friday by beating Vallejo eventually in a blitz tiebreak while Ivanchuk eliminated Shirov on Saturday. Yesterday the final was played.

Ivanchuk started strongly with a victory with the Black pieces. Anand chose the 10.Qe1 line of the Classical Scheveningen, less popular than 10.a4, and after Ivanchuk’s odd-looking Ra8-d8-d7 he tried the new move 17.f5 but couldn’t create any serious threats to Black’s king. Despite White’s rook lift, Black could simply start his queenside attack and in a difficult position, White’s 38.Nxf6? was simply incorrect.

In the second game it was Anand’s turn to obtain a good position after the opening. 13.f4 looked risky and after a few moves Anand got a promising advantage, and soon won material.

In the third game the players repeated the variation of the first game. Anand was the first to deviate with 17.Nd1, and after some manoeuvering he reached a slightly better ending after 29.a4. It seems that Ivanchuk defended quite accurately to a draw, but he himself called it (always in fluent Spanish) “a comedy of errors”, but added that the several mistakes committed by both players enriched the game.

In the end, White can try 54. Kc7 Rc1+ 55. Kb8 but it’s a draw after 55…g3 56. hxg3 h3 57. Ra2 Kg5 58. Ka8 Rb1 59. b8Q Rxb8+ 60. Kxb8 Kg4 61. Rf2 f5 62. Re2 Kxg3 63. Rxe6 h2 64. Rg6+ Kf3 65. Rh6 Ke4.

In the last game there was an abrupt finish when the world champion mixed up the move order in a line of the Nimzo-Indian, which immediately led to a lost position. Ivanchuk remarked that a similar mistake was once made by Petrosian against Polugaevsky.

At the the press conference Ivanchuk, who will play a simul in León today to finish the activities, commented on the games. Anand, who for the first time didn’t win playing in this KO system in León, said that he did not play at the same level as Ivanchuk.

The press conference with the two finalists and press chief GM Zenón Franco Ocampos…

…with many spectators watching

Anand explaining what went wrong in that last game…

…and after two weeks we see another happy Ivanchuk in a press conference…

…mentioning many more chess variations he as seen during the game

Photos & report provided by press chief GM Zenón Franco Ocampos

Links:

• Official website
• Games in PGN