Linares: Anand, Aronian and Grischuk win
23 February 2009, 11.06 CET | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Three decisive games meant a great fourth round in Linares on Sunday. Anand beautifully outplayed Wang Yue in an ending while Grischuk survided early pressure built up by Radjabov and then won in the ending. Aronian became the last winner of the day after he converted an endgame with an extra pawn against Dominguez at move 92.
From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. There is no starting fee for the players this time; the prize fund is € 314,000. The winner takes € 100,000, the second place is € 75,000 and the third player earns € 50,000.
Round 4
Just like at Corus, Carlsen is in a peaceful mood and has started the tournament with four draws. In another 4.Qb3 Gr?ºnfeld (Topalov played it against Kamsky earlier this week) Ivanchuk tried the ancient 5…Be6 and was quite successful: he soon had solved his opening problems.
It was 1.d4 again for Anand and perhaps at some point we should stop signalling it! But still, it’s interesting to see what the Indian has up his sleeve against all those Black options. Against Wang Yue’s Chebanenko Slav he went for 5.a4 and then followed up with a king’s bishop fianchetto. It looks like the Chinese quickly chose the wrong plan (…Rb8 and …b5) because it allowed the star move 21.Bc6! with which the World Champion started to dominate the board completely.
The Queen’s Indian in Radjabov-Grischuk looked very familiar, but this version was a bit different. White built up a nice position but then threw it all away with 18.e5, which must have been a tactical oversight. In his opponent’s timetrouble, Radjabov played some more inaccuracies and lost several pawns, and then the game.
Aronian showed that the 7.dxc5 line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted has more venom than you would think. It’s all about accurate manoeuvering and without running any risks, it’s no surprise that the line has been appreciated by many top GMs over the years. Black does best not to play …b5 too early because it has proven to be too much of a weakness, as I once wrote in a Survey for New in Chess Yearbook way back. Perhaps 12…a5 weakens too much as well, not sure about that, but as soon as White could destroy Black’s pawn structure he was way on top. Dominguez fought like a lion, for hours and hours, but it was in vain.
Monday is a rest day in Linares.
Linares 2009 | Round 4 Standings
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| 1 | Aronian,L | 2750 | +202 | * | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 3.0/4 | 5.50 | |||
| 2 | Grischuk,A | 2733 | +206 | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0/4 | 3.75 | |||
| 3 | Anand,V | 2791 | +39 | 0 | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2.5/4 | ||||
| 4 | Carlsen,M | 2776 | -29 | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/4 | 3.75 | |||
| 5 | Ivanchuk,V | 2779 | -26 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | 2.0/4 | 3.50 | |||
| 6 | Dominguez Perez,L | 2717 | -43 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | 1.5/4 | ||||
| 7 | Radjabov,T | 2761 | -188 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | * | 1.0/4 | 2.50 | |||
| 8 | Wang Yue | 2739 | -160 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 1.0/4 | 2.00 |
Linares 2009 | Schedule & results
| Thursday, February 19th | Friday, February 20th | |
| Round 1 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 2 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Anand-Radjabov 1-0 | Radjabov-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Aronian-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | Grischuk-Wang Yue 1-0 | |
| Dominguez-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | Carlsen-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | |
| Wang Yue-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | Anand-Aronian 0-1 | |
| Saturday, February 21st | Sunday, February 22nd | |
| Round 3 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 4 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Aronian-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | Radjabov-Grischuk 0-1 | |
| Dominguez-Anand ¬?-¬? | Carlsen-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Wang Yue-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | Anand-Wang Yue 1-0 | |
| Ivanchuk-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | Aronian-Dominguez 1-0 | |
| Monday, February 23rd | Tuesday, February 24th | |
| Round 5 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Dominguez-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | ||
| Rest day | Wang Yue-Aronian ¬?-¬? | |
| Ivanchuk-Anand ¬?-¬? | ||
| Grischuk-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | ||
| Wednesday, February 25th | Thursday, February 26th | |
| Round 6 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 7 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Wang Yue-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | Radjabov-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | |
| Ivanchuk-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | Anand-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Grischuk-Aronian 1-0 | Aronian-Ivanchuk 0-1 | |
| Carlsen-Anand 1-0 | Dominguez-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | |
| Friday, February 27th | Saturday, February 28th | |
| Round 8 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Radjabov-Anand ¬?-¬? | ||
| Rest day | Carlsen-Aronian 0-1 | |
| Grischuk-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | ||
| Ivanchuk-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | ||
| Sunday, March 1st | Monday, March 2nd | |
| Round 9 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 10 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Ivanchuk-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | Radjabov-Aronian 1-0 | |
| Wang Yue-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | Anand-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | |
| Dominguez-Carlsen 0-1 | Carlsen-Wang Yue 0-1 | |
| Aronian-Anand ¬?-¬? | Grischuk-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Tuesday, March 3rd | Wednesday, March 4th | |
| Round 11 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Grischuk-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | ||
| Ivanchuk-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | Rest day | |
| Wang Yue-Anand ¬?-¬? | ||
| Dominguez-Aronian ¬?-¬? | ||
| Thursday, March 5th | Friday, March 6th | |
| Round 12 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 13 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Radjabov-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | Carlsen-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | |
| Aronian-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | Grischuk-Anand ¬?-¬? | |
| Anand-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | Ivanchuk-Aronian 1-0 | |
| Carlsen-Grischuk 1-0 | Wang Yue-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | |
| Saturday, March 7th | Sunday, March 8th | |
| Round 14 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Radjabov-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | ||
| Dominguez-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | Closing | |
| Aronian-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | ||
| Anand-Carlsen ¬?-¬? |
Links:
- Round 1 report
- Round 2 report
- Round 3 report
- Official website
- Games in PGN
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