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All info on Morelia/Linares 2008

14 February 2008 12:19 PM | Last modified: 20:23

Morelia/Linares 2008 | Final Standings

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8    
1 Anand,V 2799 +26 ** ½½ ½½½ ½½ 11 8.5  
2 Carlsen,M 2733 +75 ** 11 0 ½1 ½0 ½1 8.0  
3 Aronian,L 2739 +43 ** 01 ½½ ½½ ½½ 7.5 52.00
4 Topalov,V 2780 -2 ½½ 00 10 ** ½½ 11 01 7.5 49.25
5 Radjabov,T 2735 +23 ½½ ½½ ½½ ** ½½ -0½ 01 7.0  
6 Ivanchuk,V 2751 -19 ½½ ½0 ½½ ** 11 ½½ 6.5  
7 Leko,P 2755 -72 ½1 ½½ 00 00 ** ½½ 5.5 39.75
8 Shirov,A 2753 -74 00 ½0 ½½ 10 1 ½½ ½½ ** 5.5 38.00


All results:



How can you follow the tournament?

  • ChessVibes will provide daily coverage on Morelia and video coverage during the (complete!) Linares part of the tournament.
  • Videos by Macauley.
  • Live commentary via Playchess, ICC, Chessdom and ChessPro.
  • The best analysis can be found at Crestbook (GM Sergei Shipov).
  • Very quick service is always provided by TWIC.
  • (Photo) reports and analysis by GM Dorian Rogozenko at Chessbase.

Morelia/Linares is an eight-player, double round-robin and is held from February 14 till March 8. Participants are Anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Leko, Radjabov, Shirov and Topalov.

The first part takes place 14-23 February in the Mexican city of Morelia, after which the players fly to Spain for the second part of the tournament: February 28 - March 8 in Linares.


Playing Schedule Morelia/Linares 2008

Morelia (Mexico)     Linares (Spain)  
Thursday, February 14 OPENING   Thursday, February 28 Round 8
Friday, February 15 Round 1   Friday, February 29 Round 9
Saturday, February 16 Round 2   Saturday, March 1 Round 10
Sunday, February 17 Round 3   Sunday, March 2 REST DAY
Monday, February 18 REST DAY   Monday, March 3 Round 11
Tuesday, February 19 Round 4   Tuesday, March 4 Round 12
Wednesday, February 20 Round 5   Wednesday, March 5 REST DAY
Thursday, February 21 REST DAY   Thursday, March 6 Round 13
Friday, February 22 Round 6   Friday, March 7 Round 14
Saturday, February 23 Round 7   Saturday, March 8 CLOSING


The rounds will be played at 15:30 hrs local time. In Morelia, this means 16:30 EST | 21:30 GMT | 22:30 CET. In Linares, this means 08:30 EST | 14:30 GTM | 15:30 CET.




PLAYER PROFILES

Name: Viswanathan Anand

Country: India
Born: 11 December 1969
FIDE-rating: 2799
Ranking: shared 1st
Strong point: Status as world champion. Double winner (1998 and 2007). He’s the best.
Weak point: Being the best, he’ll either win or disappoint. Forgot for a while that he was the world champ, after Mexico, until halfway Corus. Has to remove the match against Kramnik from his thoughts for a few more weeks.

Name: Veselin Topalov
Country: Bulgaria
Born: 15 March 1975
FIDE-rating: 2780
Ranking: 3rd
Strong point: Fighter. Will to win. Doesn’t fear hard core theory. Personally responsible for the end of Kasparov’s career, three years ago. (Won, together with The Boss, in 2005).
Weak point: Aftermath-gate (perhaps not a weak point anymore). And: slow-starter; it always takes some time before he realizes he’s a terribly strong tournament player.
Name: Alexei Shirov
Country: Spain
Born: 4 July 1972
FIDE-rating: 2755
Ranking: 7th
Strong point: Incredible talent for the adventurous. According to the experts, he played the prettiest move ever. Might have started a second youth, if we take Khanty-Mansyisk into account.
Weak point: Finished (shared) last no less than four times in Linares. Has a tendency for pyromania every now and then.
Name: Peter Leko
Country: Hungary
Born: 8 September 1979
FIDE-rating: 2753
Ranking: 8th
Strong point: Solid fellow. Loses very rarely. Nice bloke.
Weak point: Too much of a nice bloke. Likes to win, prefers not to lose. Has his own father-in-law as a second, isn’t that asking for trouble?
Name: Vassily Ivanchuk
Country: Ukraine
Born: 18 March 1969
FIDE-rating: 2751
Ranking: 9th
Strong point: Experienced and unpredictable. Had won this tournament already before one of the participants was born. (Three times actually: 1989, 1991 and 1995).
Weak point: Oldest participant. Hasn’t won a super tournament for a while. Said to have difficulties with pressure, despite torso.
Name: Levon Aronian
Country: Armenia
Born: 6 October 1982
FIDE-rating: 2739
Ranking: 10th
Strong point: Huge talent. Coming up with the toughest moves is like brushing his teeth. Won Corus.
Weak point: Tends to forget to think at critical moments. Loves bughouse, which might lead to reckless sacrifices.
Name: Teimour Radjabov
Country: Azerbaidzhan
Born: 12 March 1987
FIDE-rating: 2735
Ranking: 12th
Strong point: Young, energetic, fighter, will to win. Is playing the King’s Indian almost as successfully as Kasparov. Speaks (and thinks!?) quicker than his shadow.
Weak point: Tends to not keep an eye on his laptop. Doesn’t like the Armenian snack semushka.
Name: Magnus Carlsen
Country: Norway
Born: 30 November 1990
FIDE-rating: 2733
Ranking: 13th
Strong point: Biggest talent in the world. Said to rarely analyse his own games, and spending more time on tennis courts, and yet wins Corus shared, at 17 years old. Will be more successful than Michael Chang.
Weak point: his backhand.




MORELIA

Morelia is the capital of the Mexican state of Michoacán de Ocampo. The city has a population of approximately 6,00,000 600,000 inhabitants and is the seat of the municipality of Morelia.

The city’s historic downtown area which houses more than 1000 colonial buildings and churches became a World Heritage Site in 1991. Famous buildings in the centre are the cathedral, the Casa del Arte, the colonial aquaduct and the birth place of fighter for independence José María Morelos, to whom the town was named in 1828. (Wikipedia)

The baroque Cathedral of Morelia Aquaduct in the middle of the street
Street in the historical centre Palacio Clavijero



Somewhere between February 23 and 28, the players will fly to Spanje. In Linares, where this top event has been organised for many years, the second half of the tournament will be played.

LINARES

Linares is a city located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, Spain. With its approximately 60,000 inhabitants, it’s about ten times as small as Morelia. It’s famous for being the birthplace of both Andrés Segovia and the singer Raphael.

The hotel Anibal, where the tournament is always taking place, has the same name as the model as the terrain-vehicle produced by car company Santana Motor, which makes vehicles for the Spanish army and is located in Linares (Wikipedia).

The town hall of Linares Church of San Agustín
Plaza de Toros Suzuki-Santana-fabrics

Comments

27 Responses to “All info on Morelia/Linares 2008”

  1. SteinarN on 14 February 2008 22:05 PM

    Where can I find pairings?

    Go Magnus!

  2. peter on 14 February 2008 22:07 PM

    The pairings aren’t available yet. We will add them to this page as soon as possible.

  3. teimour on 15 February 2008 11:17 AM

    Magnus - Ivanchuk in the first round

  4. Raju dada on 15 February 2008 13:34 PM

    Go anand…
    Qb3!!

  5. Partidas de ajedrez comentadas on 15 February 2008 16:45 PM

    Las partidas de Morelia empiezan a las 21.30 GMT, creo que está mal en la tabla de chessvibes.
    Hoy empiezan las partidas disfrutemos

  6. peter on 15 February 2008 16:49 PM

    Gracias, “Partidas de ajedrez comentadas” (qual es su nombre?? :-) ), es corregido.

  7. Partidas de ajedrez comentadas on 15 February 2008 17:55 PM

    Me llamo Pedro y os agradezco el seguimiento que hacéis de los torneos, para nosotros los aficionados es muy importante que alguien nos permita disfrutar de nuestra afición.
    En mi web recoja algunas partidas y las analizo para aficionados y para clases de iniciación al ajedrez y a veces os pillo análisis,
    Un saludo y gracias

  8. Jois on 16 February 2008 2:39 AM

    In which site can I find live games?

  9. Partidas de ajedrez comentadas on 16 February 2008 2:55 AM

    Anand acaba de ganar con negras a Shirov

  10. moonkid on 17 February 2008 2:15 AM

    Topalov is coming back to the top! He’ll smash them all, remember my words!

  11. Karlo on 17 February 2008 14:50 PM

    Levon jan! Go ahead, you are the best!!!
    Do it Armenian!!!!!

  12. moonkid on 19 February 2008 3:48 AM

    Told ya! Topa is the best!

  13. George on 20 February 2008 22:54 PM

    All the players are great but Anand is the best!

  14. HetMes on 21 February 2008 2:37 AM

    Someone seems awfully silent the last two days…

  15. HetMes on 21 February 2008 15:33 PM

    Does anyone have information on how tall the various chess players are? Topalov looks rather small, compared to Carlsen, judging from their picture.

  16. Zoli on 24 February 2008 14:13 PM

    Great tournament so far. Very exciting. Might be the peppers in the Mexican food but i think it is the style of the players. When i saw the lineup i knew we’ll see a lot of fight. I was sure we’ll have a lot of decisive games with players like Anand, Topalov, Shirov, Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov and Ivanchuk. I taught first that Leko might be the black sheep of the tournament regarding excitement but i must say he impressed me in this tournament. He played a different chess, he was taking more risks than before. Unfortunately it backfired on him but i hope this won’t discourage him of trying to play more aggressively in the future.
    Bottom line: one of the best, most entertaining tournament i have seen in years.
    Thanks to the players!

  17. moonkid on 26 February 2008 15:49 PM

    HetMes: Yeah, a witty remark about silence :) However, Topa is heading to Olymp again :) As for your interest in heights: Topa is 1.78 cm… Anand is 1.85 cm…. the tallest as I know is Kramnik who is 1.92 cm

  18. Gunther Furtado on 26 February 2008 19:05 PM

    Hi, Congrats for the good work. I believe i found an error on the page http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/all-info-on-morelia-linares-2008/

    According to the Morelia results table Carlsen beat Radjabov but I believe it went the other way around, didn´t it?

    cheers,

    gunther

  19. peter on 26 February 2008 19:13 PM

    yes, thanks, that was a mistake - corrected now.

  20. HetMes on 27 February 2008 17:21 PM

    Thanks moonkid, how do you know about the players’ heights?

  21. Horst on 29 February 2008 12:44 PM

    On all sites incl. your site, the link “TOURNAMENTSITE” still leads to the Mexican site. Isn’t there any Tournamentsite at Linares in Spain ?

    Regards Horst

  22. NilsR on 29 February 2008 22:32 PM

    The link to Chessbase above links to TWIC instead.

  23. peter on 29 February 2008 22:57 PM

    Oops. Corrected now.

  24. vijaym on 29 February 2008 23:15 PM

    Here’s the link I found but doesn’t seem to be working: http://www.ajedrez.ciudaddelinares.es/

  25. Nikita on 2 March 2008 18:01 PM

    Great info, tks!

  26. John on 6 March 2008 17:23 PM

    Indeling ronde 13 en 14 zijn per abuis verwisseld.

  27. peter on 6 March 2008 17:50 PM

    Dank, verbeterd.

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