Linex-Magic wins third Spanish title
9 November 2009, 11.20 CET | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags: League
Last year CajaCanarias (Tenerife) won the Spanish Championship after a nail-biting finish, but this weekend Linex-Magic won back the national title. It was the third cup for the team from Mérida, and match winner was Fabiano Caruana, who scored the only victory in the final.
Photo courtesy of Linex-Magic
This weekend the playoffs of the Spanish Team Championship took place in Linares, the famous chess city located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, Spain.
The Spanish Team Championships are always decided among four teams in a play-off weekend, usually at the end of October or the start of November. Last year it took place in Montril (Granada) where CajaCanarias (Tenerife) emerged as the winners. This year the final four of the División de Honor Nacional de Ajedrez were Escuela International Kasparov-Marcote (Mondariz, Galicia), SCC de Sabadell (Catalunya), C.A. Linex-Magic (Mérida) and Kutxa-Gros (San Sebastián). The venue was the theatre in Linares, the same place of the super-tournament in February every year.
On Saturday, November 7th the semi-finals were played. E.I. Kasparov-Marcote crushed SCC Sabadell 5-1 despite two draws on the top boards (Gashimov and Vallejo having three hundred rating points more than their opponents!). C.A. Linex-Magic defeated Kutxa Gros 4-2 thanks to Shirov and Cheparinov, who beat Kasimdzhanov and Hamdouchi respectively. (Don’t miss the great Botvinnik Semi-Slav game Kasim-Shirov!)
In the big final on Sunday, E.I. Kasparov-Marcote and C.A. Linex-Magic fought out a tough match which was eventually decided by just one game: Caruana’s crushing victory against Alexander Graf. Shirov and Gashimov played an interesting Benoni on board 1 whick looked very scary for Black – allowing e5-e6, having to play the king to f7 and e8 and then back to g8 against Shirov and survive it is a mission impossible, except for world’s number 6 Vugar Gashimov apparently!
The match for 3rd and 4th place was won convincingly by Kutxa Gros, who were much too strong for SCC Sabadell. It looks like this year only three teams were able to collect enough sponsor money to line up strong foreign grandmasters. But as one of the countries hit the most by the financial crisis, luckily Spain is still hanging on, relying on their enormous chess culture.
All games
Game viewer by ChessTempo
We recognize the stage from the Linares tournament
The players in action in the theater
Vugar Gashimov, not playing the Tal Memorial but certainly playing
Rustam Kasimdzhanov from Uzbekistan, now with glasses...
...like Loek van Wely from The Netherlands
Ivan Cheparinov from Bulgaria
The top game Shirov-Gashimov, one of the most interesting draws this weekend
Fabiano Caruana played a very important role in this year's Championship
The winners with their third cup: los extremeños, Linex-Magix, from Mérida, Extremadura
Links:
 ShareThis
|  Print
|
Well, the Sabadell team actually had money and players, but since three of them (Fier, Magem and Almeida) had an invitation for the Casino de Barcelona tournament, they couldn’t make a competitive team for the spanish playoff. A pity that the two events overlapped.
The ratingnumbers, are they local? They are not from the FIDE-list.
What happend at the end of Kasimdzhanov-Shirov? White has at least a draw. Did he lose on time?
Looks like Shirov missed the 19.f5 shot
I hadn’t noticed the ratings!! Yes, I checked with FEDA rating list, I don’t know why but they’ve put the players their national ratings instead of FIDE’s.
Kasim flagged, he was probably trying to find a way to play on, as the team needed a win to go the final, and forgot about the clock…
Thanks Patty43
What about 19.f5, Frans? Is it so convincing for White?
I don’t think that an attacking player like Shirov misses 19.f5
The final ended 3.5-2.5 I guess..
Indeed, corrected. Can you also tell the Spaniards, please?
Maybe I sounded a bit to arrogant…. But even great players like Shirov have been known to make mistakes Meppie….
No, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. By Shirov (for not just winning this game) and by myself. I cant find a forced win after f5 indeed, but to my mind ef7+ cant be the solution. I have a gut feeling the position is winning for white. But how to make it work? Let me ponder for a while.
Congratulations to the team!!!
How can it be ‘winning’ for White, Frans? White has no pieces for his attack and Black’s bishops control all vital squares. He should be glad he escaped with a draw!
Gabriel Sargissian’s rating should be 2676, not 2568.
Otherwise a very nice report!
@Joe
Please read the other comments before write yours down.
Ah i read in the comments that Kashimdov got flagged.
Wasn’t the only way to try to win given a check on b4 and then promote to another queen.
Saw Queen trade wasn’t working for a win. After Nf5, Rf7, Nh6 white just captures on f7.
You are probably right Arne.
I cant get f4-f5 to work. The more I look at the position, the more I wonder if f4-f5 is a punch when there is no f3-knight in play. It was exchanged on b6. Probably top-GM’s like Ghasimov can feel (or know) that in such positions that there is no danger of being mated (?)
Damn GMaps!