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| Linares Round 10 |
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Round 10 (March 10, 2000)
Kramnik, Vladimir - Leko, Peter 1/2 26 A43 Queen's pawn
Kasparov, Gary - Anand, Viswanathan 1/2 30 C42 Petroff defence
Khalifman, Alexander - Shirov, Alexei 1/2 17 D19 Slav defence
SuperGM Linares ESP (ESP), 28 ii-10 iii 2000 cat. XXI (2752)
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1 2 3 4 5 6
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1 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2758 ** == == 1= == 1= 6.0 2822
2 Kasparov, Gary g RUS 2851 == ** == == 1= 1= 6.0 2803
3 Leko, Peter g HUN 2725 == == ** =0 == == 4.5 2721
4 Khalifman, Alexander g RUS 2656 0= == =1 ** =0 == 4.5 2734
5 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2769 == 0= == =1 ** 0= 4.5 2712
6 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2751 0= 0= == == 1= ** 4.5 2715
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Both Kasparov and Kramnik officially declared 1st=.
The John Henderson Report for round 10: No-one ever expects the Spanish intuition
NO-ONE EVER EXPECTS THE SPANISH INTUITION
CALL it intuition if you will, but there was an air of inevitability about it in the pressroom: three draws in the final round to make it 23 out of 30!
And, sure enough, after just one hour of play and 17-moves of theory in the Slav Defence, Alexander Khalifman and Alexei Shirov led the way. And, for the first time since 1985 (shared by Ljubojevic and Huebner), two players, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, were tied for first place at Linares. And just to make matters even more confusing, you couldn't get a cigarette paper between the two Russians as all four tie-breaking systems produced the same result!
Silver coin
And just to tempt fate, the arbiter, Juan Vargas, had arranged for a special silver coin to be delivered to him at the playing hall before the final round started. Some had suggested a penalty shoot-out; I came up with the idea of taking the two players to the nearby bullring to face the bulls (this was quickly ruled out as being far too cruel - for the bulls that is!); but the preferred Spanish way of settling it was by the toss of a coin…unfortunately Garry Kasparov came up with his own tie-breaking system.
As Juan Vargas approached Kasparov with silver coin in hand to start the formalities, our hero was having nothing to do with it. "Chess does not get decided by a piece of silver," he said. Quite right, Garry. The going rate in FIDE these days is thirty pieces of silver! I then suggested to the great one that it was his duty to defend the honour of the game by deciding first place over the board, which he seemed to take seriously as arrangements were made to seek Kramnik's opinion. For a whole half-hour we prepared ourselves for a fight to the death with two blitz games - rumour even had it they would be using the silver coin after all to decide who would have White in the first game!
The winners have a final
chat.
However it was not to be. Both players cried off as they claimed to be "too tired". So it was back to the good old silver coin then you would think? Well, you'd be wrong! Showing he was all heart underneath that steely exterior, Kasparov decided that both players would be declared winners and, on the basis that he felt he deserved it more, he would personally award the silver trophy to his young protégé. Kramnik, whose best result in his six previous Linares appearances was his second place behind Kasparov in 1997, felt a bit moved by this magnanimous decision.
Explaining his reasons later for not playing the blitz games, Kasparov stated that: "If you include blitz games into the rules then that's a different story - of course we play. But it wasn't in our contracts!"
Prizegiving: Kramnik and Kasparov
share first.
First place and trophy winner decided, next on the agenda was the best game prize and the award to the player who was felt to have fought the hardest at Linares. After his recent well-publicised problems in Holland, I'm sure that Garry felt safe in the knowledge here that the journalists would decide these awards. However we did put the wind up Garry a little by letting it be known to him that the Wijk aan Zee audience had a postal ballot for these two awards! I'm not sure, but I think he saw the funny side of this.
We voted for the Kramnik-Kasparov epic from round eight as the joint-best game award (though some joker thought that we should toss the silver coin and award it to one of the two!), for which both players were awarded a gold Mont Blanc pen. And the player we voted for as the hardest fighter at Linares was Garry Kasparov, who received a gold Maurice Lacroix wristwatch.
Vladimir Kramnik "proud and very
happy".
After the prize-giving ceremony, an elated (as only Vlad can be) Kramnik said "he felt very proud and very happy about his +2 score. It's an honour to come first equal here with Garry Kasparov - especially after his [GK] results over the last year and a half!"
Commenting on Alexander Khalifman's performance at Linares, Kasparov said he "jumped in over his head here." Praising Khalifman for his stubbornness that saw him picking up the third prize, Kasparov further added that it "was the greatest achievement of his life - apart from Las Vegas."
Kasparov-Anand (10)
Kasparov,G (2851) - Anand,V (2769) [C42]
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 0-0 Be7 8 c4 Nb4 9 Be2 0-0 10 Nc3 b6 11 a3 Nxc3 12 bxc3 Nc6 13 cxd5 Qxd5 14 Re1 Bb7 15 Bd3 Rae8!? 16 c4 [Earlier in the tournament, Kasparov-Kramnik went: 16 Qc2 h6 17 Bh7+ Kh8 18 Be4 Qd8?! (18 ..Qd6! with the idea of ..Bf6.) 19 Bb2 Bf6 20 c4 Na5 21 Bxb7 Nxb7 ½-½ Kasparov,G-Kramnik,V/Linares ESP 2000] 16 ..Qd8 17 d5 Nb8 18 Qc2
Kasparov-Anand (10) 18.
Qc2
[During the post mortem, Kramnik's second, Miguel Illescas, informed Kasparov that after research with Kramnik following their game, both had come to the conclusion that White's best was: 18 Ne5!? A) 18 ..Bd6? 19 f4 c6 (19 ..Nd7 20 Bb2) 20 Bb2 cxd5 21 Qh5! g6 22 Nxg6 fxg6 23 Bxg6 Rxe1+ 24 Rxe1 Bc5+ 25 Kh1 Qc7 26 Bxh7+ Qxh7 27 Qg4+ Kf7 28 Qe6#; B) 18 ..Bf6! (Anand) 19 Bb2 (19 Qh5 g6 20 Qf3 Nd7) 19 ..Qd6 20 Qe2 Nd7; C) 18 ..Nd7?! 19 Qh5 g6 20 Nxg6 fxg6 21 Bxg6 Nf6 22 Qh6! Qd7 23 Bb2 Bc5 24 Bxe8 Nxe8 25 Re5 Ng7 26 Rg5 Rf7 27 Bxg7 Rxg7 28 Re1] 18 ..g6 19 Ne5 [19 Bh6 Bf6 20 Rad1 Rxe1+ 21 Rxe1 Re8] 19 ..Bf6! 20 Bb2 Nd7 21 f4 [21 Nxd7 Bxb2 22 Nxf8 Bxa1 23 Rxa1 Kxf8] 21 ..Bg7 22 Qf2 [22 Nxd7 Qxd7 23 Bxg7 Kxg7 24 f5 c6!] 22 ..Nc5 23 Bc2 Qd6 24 Re3 f6 25 Ng4 Rxe3 26 Qxe3 Bc8! 27 f5 [Kasparov suggested in the post mortem that maybe he should play 27 h3, but Anand showed, with accurate defence, that it was nothing special: 27 h3 Bxg4 28 hxg4 Rf7! 29 Re1 Bf8!] 27 ..Bxf5 28 Bxf5 gxf5 29 Nf2 Ne4 30 Nxe4 ½-½
Kramnik-Leko (10)
Kramnik,V (2758) - Leko,P (2725) [A43]
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 c5! [Kramnik and his second, Miguel Illescas, had spent the evening before, and in the morning, preparing for Leko's favourite Grunfeld, only to be shocked by this! Leko's second, GM Amador Rodriguez, explained that it was a line (after 10 ..Ne8) that Peter felt he could hold the ending despite being slightly worse off.] 3 d5 g6 4 Nc3 Bg7 5 e4 d6 6 Bb5+ Bd7 7 a4 0-0 8 0-0 Bxb5 9 axb5 Nbd7 10 Qe2 Ne8 11 Bf4 [11 Nd2 Nc7 12 Nc4 a6 13 bxa6 Rxa6 14 Bg5 Nb6 15 Rxa6 Nxa6 16 Bxe7 Qxe7 17 Nxb6 Re8 18 Re1 Nc7 19 g3 Na8 20 Nxa8 Rxa8 21 Qc4 h5 22 Kg2 Ra6 23 e5 Rb6 24 e6 Rxb2 25 exf7+ Qxf7 26 Ne4 b5 27 Qd3 Be5 28 f3 Qf5 29 Ra1 Rxc2+ 30 Qxc2 Bxa1 31 Qb1 Bg7 32 Qxb5 Qxd5 33 Qe8+ Kh7 34 Qe7 Kh6 35 Nxd6 g5 36 Qd7 Kh7 37 Qf5+ Qxf5 38 Nxf5 Be5 39 Ne3 Kg6 40 Nc4 Bd4 41 Nd6 Be5 ½-½ Bellon Lopez,J-Borgo,G/Cutro 1997/EXT 2000] 11 ..Nc7 12 Rfd1 a6 13 bxa6 Nxa6 14 e5 dxe5 15 Nxe5 Nxe5 16 Bxe5 Bxe5 17 Qxe5 Qd6 18 Qg5 Nc7! [18 ..Nb4? 19 Ne4 Rxa1 20 Rxa1 Qc7 (20 ..Qxd5 21 Qxe7) 21 c3 Nd3 22 d6! exd6 23 Nf6+ Kg7 24 Ng4 Kg8 (24 ..f5?? 25 Qh6+ Kg8 26 Nf6+! Rxf6 27 Ra8+ Kf7 28 Qxh7+) 25 Qf6 h5 26 Nh6+ Kh7 27 Nf5!! gxf5 28 Qxf5+ Kh6 29 Qxd3 and Black has problems holding the ending] 19 Ne4 Rxa1
Kramnik-Leko (10) 19.
Rxa1
[19 ..Qxd5?! was suggested in the pressroom, but it was quickly ruled out by Amador Rodriguez as an easy win for White: 20 Qxe7 Qe6 21 Nf6+! Kh8 (21 ..Kg7? 22 Nh5+ gxh5 23 Qxc7 Rxa1 24 Rxa1) 22 Qxc7 Rxa1 (22 ..Qxf6 23 Rxa8 Rxa8 24 Qxb7 Ra2 25 c3) 23 Rxa1 Qxf6 24 Qxc5 Rd8 25 c3] 20 Rxa1 f6 21 Nxd6 fxg5 22 Nxb7 Rb8 23 Na5 [23 Nxc5? Rxb2 24 c4 Rc2 25 Kf1 Rxc4] 23 ..Rxb2 [23 ..Nxd5?! 24 Nc4! and White has chances due to the shattered Black Pawn's.] 24 c4 Rc2! [Secures the draw.] 25 h3 Ne8 26 Nc6 ½-½
Khalifman-Shirov
(10)
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(1) Kramnik,V (2758) - Leko,P (2725) [A43]
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(2) Kasparov,G (2851) - Anand,V (2769) [C42]
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(3) Khalifman,A (2656) - Shirov,A (2751) [D19]
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