Linares 2010 starts

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27th Linares tournament 2010 (Start)

IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 15th February 2010

The 27th edition of the Linares tournament is underway in the Andalucian town but the event has been affected by the economic slowdown. It was no surprise that the planned tie up with Dubai fell through and the organizers responded to budgetary pressures by reducing the size of the field.

The tournament will be a six player double round all play all and I am delighted to see that Francisco Vallejo, one of the strongest players Spain has ever produced, has been invited back.

There is still a healthy prize fund with the winner collecting € 75,000 and the player finishing sixth and last € 15,000

Veselin Topalov will be aiming to recapture the number one spot from Magnus Carlsen while Alexander Grischuk the Russian champion returns as winner of Linares 2009. The full line up is

Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria 2805

Levon Aronian, Armenia 2781

Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan 2759

Boris Gelfand, Israel 2761

Alexander Grischuk, Russia 2736

Francisco Vallejo, Spain 2705

There was a smaller Open tournament in Moscow before Aeroflot. In this wild game White secures bishop, knight, three pawns and an attack for the queen but goes wrong before a blunder settles it.

E Vorobiov - L Gerzhoy

Four Knights

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Nd4 5.Bc4 Bc5

(The sharpest response, offering a pawn for development)

6.Nxe5 Qe7 7.Nf3 d5 8.Bxd5 Bg4

(Black must react quickly before White consolidates)

9.d3 c6

(9...0-0-0!?)

10.Bb3 Nd7 11.Be3

(11.Bg5 Qd6 Bernstein - Rubinstein 1912)

11...Ne5 12.Nxd4 Bxd1 13.Nf5 Qf8 14.Bxc5 Qxc5 15.d4 Qa5

(15...Qb4 16.Rxd1 Ng6 17.Nxg7+ Kf8 18.Nf5 and White won in Motylev-Shirov Rapid 2004)