Anand takes early lead in Linares
20 February 2009, 2.20 CET | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
World Champion Viswanathan Anand showed the way in the first round of Linares. Using his good old 1.e4, he beat Radjabov in a highly theoretical Sveshnikov, while all other games ended in a draw.
From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. It’s the first tournament of Viswanathan Anand after he retained his world title in October last year, when he beat Vladimir Kramnik in a match for the world title. Corus participants Carlsen, Radjabov, Aronian, Ivanchuk, Wang Yue and Dominguez are there as well and the last name is Grischuk, who replaced Topalov, who is currently playing the Challenger’s Match against Kamsky.
Linares 2009 | Participants
| No. | Name | Country | Live rating* | FIDE rating | Born |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viswanathan Anand | India | 2791 | 2791 | 11 Dec. 1969 |
| 2 | Magnus Carlsen | Norway | 2764 | 2776 | 30 Nov. 1990 |
| 3 | Teimour Radjabov | Azerbaijan | 2762 | 2761 | 12 Mar. 1987 |
| 4 | Levon Aronian | Armenia | 2757 | 2750 | 06 Oct. 1982 |
| 5 | Vassily Ivanchuk | Ukraine | 2741 | 2779 | 18 Mar. 1969 |
| 6 | Wang Yue | China | 2739 | 2739 | 31 Mar. 1987 |
| 7 | Alexander Grischuk | Russia | 2733 | 2733 | 31 Oct. 1983 |
| 8 | Leinier Dominguez | Cuba | 2721 | 2717 | 23 Sep. 1982 |
*Before the start of the tournament
There is no starting fee for the players this time but instead the prize fund is quite high: € 314,000. The first prize is € 100,000, the second € 75,000 and the third € 50,000.
Round 1
World Champion Anand took a few months off from work – well, tournaments that is. Today he showed that during the last few months he did more than just relaxing: in one of the most theoretical opening lines that currently exist, the 9.Bxf6 Sveshnikov, he reached a slightly better position and then demonstrated why queen and knight are supposed to be better than queen and bishop. Great manoeuvering, and a nice finish too.
With his win Anand immediately took sole lead, because all other games ended in a draw. Aronian-Carlsen had one great move, 19.e4, but with a positional exchange sacrifice Carlsen quickly showed that Black had not much to fear there.
Dominguez-Grischuk was also quite interesting from a theoretical point of view. For thirteen moves the two repeated their game of last year at the World Blitz Championship (we’re talking about the sharp French Winawer where Black sacrifices his g- and h-pawn) and this time Dominguez went for 14.Rg1, but Grischuk only needed to play the standard stuff (sacrife the d-pawn, improve the position of the bishop and play …f6 somewhere) to equalize – in fact he got a promising position, but couldn’t find a way to make us of it.
As so often, Ivanchuk tried a relatively rare opening and today it was the Bogo-Indian. Wang Yue couldn’t prove an advantage and instead allowed almost the whole board to be exchanged. All in all, this first round was not a bad start at all!
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:
- Official website
- Games in PGN
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Another remarkable show of the world champion´s class.
Some mistake has been given in the pairings :
Anand-Wang-Ye appears in three?? rounds – Feb. 21, Feb. 22 and March 3 whereas there is only one Anand-Dominiguez paring slated for March 2.
That was pretty magical to watch.
@ Mahesh thanks, corrected!
Astonishing the highly positional and the precision style that Anand used to demonstrate the severe weakness provided by that variation of the Sicilian regarding the bad bishop and the holes in e4 and d5. Black pieces watched horrified for 60 moves the amstesyless surgery which ended with the death of his queen and monarch…
Anand is wining this event
anand played like a monster to win with a very small edge. i have only ever seen kasparov do such a thing before when he beat judit polgar (2730) with a rook him having a roo and she having a knight
impressive victory of Anand!
I agree with kamaraks.
When wathcing the game, I have the same impression: only Kasparov was able to win in such manner.
Sorry, but what a mistaken impression! There are thousands of wins like that, in the sense you’re using! As you speak, it looks like Kasparov invented something here, which is completely not the case (an error by a few centuries, at least)!
Now, it’s always wonderful to enjoy such a nice winning, and yes, of course Vishy is “a monster”.
Kamarak, I think you mean rook+knight (Kasparov) vs. rook (Polgar), Dos Hermanas 1996? Anyway, I think the comparison with such a theoretically drawn ending (but the other player has to prove it over the board) is a bit odd.
Among the presently active players, I would say Kramnik (on his better days) is best known for converting small endgame edges – though usually a different type of endgame, because mostly queens were exchanged earlier during the game.
Impressive victory by Anand, no doubt about it … but let’s not exaggerate too much.
Looks like Anand is heading for an impressive loss against Aronian however. Or is a bishop worth 5 pawns ?
look at levon!!!!!don’t compare anand with kasparov,it doesn’t worth!
Anand is losing : he is 3 paws down (K+B) vs (B+B) ..
where is the linares games available live? the official website doesn’t seem to load the games at all.
So now Aronian is leading the tournament.
Should we now say he is winning the event (as someone said about Anand after round 1) or would that be a trifle premature after only 2 rounds ?
It seems Anand relaxed after his great previous win. Am I wrong, or Anand played a terrible blunder on move 12. Ng5?? Losing at least a pawn like sometimes I do playing 2min/4sec blitz over Internet…?
to raj.
The live games are available here http://linares09.soloajedrez.com
The official web site works verry well and even you can follow the live commentary (in spanish) by Garcia and Fredel (in english).