Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
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prizes in the Telegraph chess challenge on the Chess Club pages. 14th Round Sunday, 9th March 2003.
World title challenger Peter Leko of Hungary won the 20th Linares Supertournament on tie break from champion Vladimir Kramnik after coolly holding his future opponent to a draw with black in the fourteenth and last round. Leko scored a psychological victory for the forthcoming Einstein world title match and his transformation from a 'drawing master' seems complete, he took home the trophy on account of his number of victories and the fewest number of draws.
Kramnik and Leko finished on 7/12, quite a low winning score. Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand who faced each other both had a shot at tournament victory in the last round but the game was drawn and the pair ended equal third on 6.5. Kasparov tried to make something of his position but there were too many exchanges and Kasparov's four year sequence of victories at elite tournaments came to an end.
Kasparov's winning run is probably unparalleled and included ten tournaments from Wijk aan Zee 1999 but the world number one played well below par. Had he shown his best form he would have won the tournament at a canter because no player was able to dominate. There were a remarkable number of errors made in the endgame and Anand in particular can look back on at least two lost half points.
Vladimir Kramnik played in his typical style and this will hearten him greatly. He was the only unbeaten player and scored ten draws and two wins but he too misplayed an endgame, against Teimour Radjabov and will feel he should have won the tournamenmt outright. Radjabov, soon to celebrate his sixteenth birthday went downhill after his sensational win over Kasparov but 4.5/12 is a creditable debut at Linares.
The Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov had another setback although he did manage to get to fifth place after a fortuitous victory over Francisco Vallejo-Pons who built up a fine position only to blunder into a bad but probably drawn rook and pawn endgame. Once again the defending side failed to hold the position indeed the Spaniard subsided remarkably quickly. Perhaps the spectre of a sudden death quickplay finish is the cause of so many inaccurate moves. Before the age of computers, adjournment analysis during a break after the fortieth move ensured a higher standard of play and masked any lack of theoretical knowledge.
Round fourteen results:
Kramnik draw Leko, Sicilian 3. ..e5, 35;
Anand draw Kasparov, Sicilian Dragon, 32 ;
Vallejo-Pons 0-1 Ponomariov, 53;
Radjabov - Bye;
Final score: 1-2 Leko (Hungary), Kramnik (Russia) 7/12; 3-4 Anand (India), Kasparov (Russia) 6.5; 5 Ponomariov (Ukraine) 5.5; 6 Vallejo-Pons (Spain) 5; 6 Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 4.5;
Anand,V (2753) - Kasparov,G (2847) [B72]
XX SuperGM Linares ESP (14), 09.03.2003
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Bb3 d6 9.h3 Na5 10.0-0 b6 11.Re1 Bb7 12.Bg5 Nxb3 13.axb3 h6 14.Bh4 Qd7 [ 14...a6 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 Re8 17.c4 Qd7 18.Qd3 Kh7 19.Rad1 e6 20.dxe6 fxe6 21.Nf3 Bxf3 22.Qxf3 Bxb2 23.Bg3 Ba3 24.Re4 Qe7 25.Bxd6 Bxd6 26.Rxd6 Qxd6 27.Qf7+ Kh8 28.Qf6+ Kh7 29.Qf7+ Kh8 30.Rh4 Qf8 31.Qxg6 Qg7 32.Rxh6+ Kg8 33.Qh5 Qa1+ 34.Kh2 Kf8 35.Qh4 Rad8 36.Rh8+ Kf7 37.Qf4+ Kg6 38.Qh6+ 1-0 Ye Jiangchuan-Fedorov,A/Istanbul TUR 2000/The Week in Chess 314 (38). ] 15.Qd2 Nh5 16.f3 e5 17.Nde2 f5 18.Red1 fxe4 19.fxe4 g5 20.Bf2 g4 21.h4 Nf4 22.Qxd6 Qf7 23.Nxf4 exf4 24.Qd7 Qxd7 25.Rxd7 Rf7 26.Rd6 Kh7 27.Rad1 Re8 28.Rd7 Ree7 29.Rxe7 Rxe7 30.Bd4 Rd7 31.Nd5 Bxd5 32.Bxg7 Bc6
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