Francisco Vallejo Pons defeated Veselin Topalov 3.5-2.5 in a rapid match that was the main attraction of this year's 25th anniversary chess festival in León, Spain. On Friday the Spaniard took the lead with 1.5-0.5, on Saturday both players won one game each and on Sunday in the first game Vallejo decided the match in his favour. Topalov then won the last game.

Vallejo wins his first "León"

In the last decade the tournament in León has become smaller and smaller, until only two players were invited last year. Back then Vishy Anand beat Alexei Shirov; this year the invited players were Veselin Topalov (37) and Francisco "Paco" Vallejo Pons (29).

Vallejo and Topalov posing with boxes of regional wine 

With the financial crisis hitting hard in Spain, it was quite an achievement that the organizers managed to actually hold another event. The fact that it was the 25th silver jubilee edition must have helped in that respect.

Like last year the format was a 6-game rapid match with two games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The rate of play was 45 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per game.

The players know each other well: Vallejo worked for Topalov as a second at a number of very important events, like the Elista World Championship in 2006 against Kramnik. This cooperation ended in 2009. Before the match in León, Topalov said:

Playing against somebody you know very well is quite frequent in professional chess. It is true, however, that I felt uncomfortable when I played Paco in Linares 2010, but the situation is different now because, most likely, both of us have changed our openings repertoire. Anyway, it is sure that the spectators will enjoy a very interesting match!

Veselin Topalov

Vallejo agreed with this statement:

Our personal relationship is very good, but three years is enough time to forget about psychological implications related to our work together.

The Spaniard was very motivated to perform well in León:

I played pretty well here against Anand and Gelfand in the last years, and made them suffering, but I lost at the end in both cases. I will do my best to improve that performance this weekend.

Vallejo, motivated to do even better

Topalov may have seemed the big favorite, but in fact in their 24 mutual games, the Bulgarian won six and the Spaniard five while in rapid games the score was even!

The match started on Friday on a sad note. A minute of silence was observed in memory of Rafael Cid Perez, the architect of the Seville World Championships 1987 between Kasparov and Karpov, whose tremendous popularity made Spain the world's most active country in chess and facilitated the start of the Magistral Ciudad de León in 1988.

The first move was made by the famous Spanish novelist Arturo Pérez Reverte, who is a great lover of chess. In his next novel chess plays an important role.

After his lost match against Vishy Anand in 2010, Topalov didn't play many tournaments. In our interview in January, the Bulgarian was quite optimistic about the upcoming Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee but his result was not great. In León, he still seemed rusty. The Bulgarian made a number of big mistakes and ended on the losing side: Vallejo won the match, and thus his first "León", with a 3.5-2.5 score.

Games

PGN file

Topalov:

Clearly I suffer a crisis at the moment. I especially have problems with concentration. But I'm at an age when it's still possible to play at the top. I hope that when I play more tournaments, I'll improve my performance.

Topalov: "Clearly I suffer a crisis at the moment."

As always, the festival also included lectures, film screenings and a youth tournament. On Sunday, in the lobby of the auditorium a plasma screen was placed so that the visitors could enjoy the chess alongside the Roland Garros final and the Spain-Italy football match! Still, about 200 spectators preferred the climax of the match between Topalov and Vallejo.

Paco Vallejo, in good shape against Topalov

25th Torneo Magistral de Ajedrez | Match score