Linares : Anand Wins Third Time At Linares
By Arvind Aaron

World Champion Viswanathan Anand won the Silver Jubilee Edition of the Morelia-Linares Inter-Continental Super Category Chess Tournament with a clear 8.5/14 score at Linares in Spain on March 7.

Winning Morelia-Linares Tournament is the most prestigious chess event like Wimbledon is to tennis. This event was category 21, the same strength FIDE's World Championship at Mexico City had last September.

Retaining the Morelia-Linares title will also ensure that he moves back to the clear No.1 rank in the World on April 1, 2008 from the shared No.1 rank in the FIDE Rating List of January 1, 2008.

Anand had won the Linares Tournament first time in 1998 and then again in 2007 and 2008. He is a Chennai-born Brand Ambassador for NIIT. Anand performed at a rating level of 2825 while he had a start rating of 2799.

Getting to play Linares is a big achievement for any grandmaster. Winning it once means you have the strength to beat the best players in your day. When you do it thrice, it means you are into the business of winning and are a champion of champions.

Anand's preparation and energy levels has to be appreciated as he and Ivanchuk are 1969 born and the oldest players in the meet. The winning streak with the black pieces at Morelia was his high point.

Speaking to this writer within a minute after his title was secure, Anand selected his first win against Shirov as his best game of this tournament. Reacting to the victory Anand said it was very nice to win it three times. "In my first eleven tries I won it once and it is nice to win two in a row now."

Round 14, the final round saw all four games end in draws. Very much like round ten. In all 25 out of the 56 games ended decisively. For the statistics, Anand lost the least, one game to Aronian while Leko lost the most at five.

In terms of rating changes, Carlsen gains the most followed by Aronian and Anand. Shirov leads the pack of rating losers followed by Leko and Ivanchuk. Topalov performed to expectations. The Linares event ran to expectations of this column. Having covered eight Linares Tournaments from Linares, you could perhaps guess patterns of draws better. In the preview to this event you could see the 8.5/14 winning score prediction actually happen.

The 1980s saw the Karpov-Kasparov rivalry. Then the Kasparov-Ivanchuk rivalry, then Kasparov-Anand. Then the Anand-Kramnik rivalry set in. Now, Carlsen is clearly moved to rival Anand. Seeds to his success have been sown in Wijk aan Zee and Morelia/Linares this year. The Anand v Kramnik, World Chess Championship at Bonn has been postponed slightly to start October 14 and run until November 2.

After Linares, Anand will play next in the Melody Amber Tournament which will feature Blindfold and Rapid Chess. The venue of this event has been changed from Monte Carlo in Monaco to Nice in France.

In Anand's game, the Indian player had to be content with a draw after queens were certain to be exchanged off resulting in an opposite colour bishop and rooks ending. Anand offered a draw along with his 23rd move which was accepted by Topalov.

Needing a win to tie for first place, Carlsen won a pawn with white against the Schleimann defence but Radjabov played the rook ending well to draw after 69 moves.

The results (round 14): V. Anand drew with V. Topalov, M. Carlsen drew with T. Radjabov, P. Leko drew with L. Aronian, A. Shirov drew with V. Ivanchuk.

Final placings: 1 V. Anand (Ind) 8.5/14, 2 M. Carlsen (Nor) 8, 3-4 L. Aronian (Nor), V. Topalov (Bul) 7.5 each, 5 T. Radjabov (Aze) 7, 6 V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 6.5, 7-8 P. Leko (Hun), A. Shirov (Esp) 5.5 each.

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Home                                                      Published on 08^th  March, 2008