Linares chess tournament

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The annual Linares chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess, being one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the Wijk aan Zee Corus and Dortmund events.

The event, sponsored by Spanish businessman Luis Rentero, was first held in 1978. At that time it was not an elite event and was won by the relatively unknown Swede, Jaan Eslon (on tie-break from the Argentine Roberto Debarnot). After the following year's event, it was held every other year until 1987 when no tournament took place: that being the year that Linares hosted the Candidates' Final, a match to determine a challenger for Kasparov's world title featuring Anatoly Karpov and Andrei Sokolov. The postponed 1987 event was held over until 1988 and the tournament has since become an annual event, with the exception of 1996, when the Women's World Chess Championship was held.

In 1998, the format of the tournament changed from a single round-robin tournament to a seven player double round-robin event (meaning that each participant plays every other participant twice, once with each color).

Rentero is notorious for being a strong opponent of short draws in chess, to the point that in 1991 he offered cash bonuses for playing longer games.

From 2006 to the present day, the first half of the tournament has taken place in the Mexican city of Morelia. The second half still takes place in Linares. Consequently the event is sometimes referred to as Morelia - Linares in databases and the like.

Contents

[edit] Winners

[edit] Full Results

[edit] 1999

Crosstable from TWIC 227:

XVI Ciudad de Linares (ESP), ii-iii 1999              cat. XX (2735)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Kasparov, Gary      g RUS 2812 ** == =1 == 1= 11 =1 11  10.5  2817
2 Kramnik, Vladimir   g RUS 2751 == ** == == == == =1 1=   8.0  2782
3 Anand, Viswanathan  g IND 2781 =0 == ** == =1 == 1= =1   8.0  2778
4 Leko, Peter         g HUN 2694 == == == ** == 1= 0= 0=   6.5  2712
5 Topalov, Veselin    g BUL 2700 0= == =0 == ** =0 =1 ==   6.0  2690
6 Ivanchuk, Vassily   g UKR 2714 00 == == 0= =1 ** 1= 0=   6.0  2688
7 Svidler, Peter      g RUS 2713 =0 =0 0= 1= =0 0= ** =1   5.5  2658
8 Adams, Michael      g ENG 2716 00 0= =0 1= == 1= =0 **   5.5  2657

[edit] 2007

Final Results of 2007:[1]

XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (MEX/ESP), 17 ii-10 iii 2007cat. XX (2746)

                                    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8 

1 Anand, Viswanathan     g IND 2779 ** 11 1= 0= == == == 1=  8.5  2820
2 Carlsen, Magnus        g NOR 2690 00 ** 1= == == 11 1= =0  7.5  2782
3 Morozevich, Alexander  g RUS 2741 0= 0= ** == =1 =1 01 =1  7.5  2775
4 Aronian, Levon         g ARM 2744 1= == == ** == 0= == ==  7.0  2745
5 Svidler, Peter         g RUS 2728 == == =0 == ** == == =1  7.0  2748
6 Ivanchuk, Vassily      g UKR 2750 == 00 =0 1= == ** 1= ==  6.5  2715
7 Topalov, Veselin       g BUL 2783 == 0= 10 == == 0= ** ==  6.0  2690
8 Leko, Peter            g HUN 2749 0= =1 =0 == =0 == == **  6.0  2695

[edit] References

  • [2] - a brief history and news of the 2008 event.
  • [3] - winners, crosstables from 1990-2006

[edit] External links