Cakewalk of a title win for Kasparov

LINARES (SPAIN), MARCH 7. The world's top-ranked chess player Garry Kasparov capped off a stellar performance by defeating Alexander Grischuk of Russia in the tenth and final round of the elite Linares tournament.

In the other games on Tuesday, Alexei Shirov of Spain defeated Hungary's Judit Polgar, while Peter Leko of Hungary drew with Anatoly Karpov of Russia.

Kasparov's win gave him 7.5 points out of ten, a full three points ahead of the field, who all finished with 4.5 points. It was Kasparov's second straight tournament victory since losing the World Championship to Vladimir Kramnik last fall.

The tournament got off to a slow start when all nine games in the first three rounds were drawn, but then Kasparov caught fire, winning five out of the last seven games.

Grischuk sacrificed a pawn in the opening. In the ending that followed, each player was left with two rooks and one bishop. However, the two bishops were placed on opposite-colored squares, making it difficult to gain the victory.

But Kasparov was up to the task, or rather Grischuk was not up to the task of defending his position. His pieces soon found themselves on awkward squares and, in time trouble, he lost a second pawn on move 37. Each player is allotted two hours for the first 40 moves.

Kasparov also had threats against Grischuk's king and he offered one of his pawns back. The pawn was poisoned but Grischuk took it, allowing Kasparov to threaten a mating attack and Grischuk's rook simultaneously. Grischuk promptly resigned.

Against Shirov, Polgar equalised as black and probably stood better. On move 21, Yugoslav Grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic predicted that Shirov would ``suffer.''

But the position was complicated and the initiative soon passed to white. Shirov's pieces were aimed at Polgar's king, and Polgar was forced to `fianchetto' her rook by placing it on g7, an awkward square.

By move 40, it was clear that Shirov was winning. He won the exchange and forced his opponent to resign on move 59.

Leko achieved a small advantage against Karpov. He sacrificed an exchange to exploit his superior pieces. As usual in this tournament, Karpov was in extreme time trouble but he defended well, giving back the exchange.

Leko emerged at move 40 with an outside passed b-pawn in a queen- and-rook ending but this was not enough to win and the players shook hands on move 48.

Leko was the only player not to win a single game. He lost one game to Kasparov and drew all of his other games.

The players were playing for a prize fund of 4,000,000 pesetas (about $ 22,000). But the real money in the tournament is paid to the players as appearance fees, a total of 40,000,000 pesetas (about $ 220,000).

Tournament officials would not give the breakdown except to say that Kasparov received the most and Grischuk the least.

Final standings: Kasparov 7.5; Grischuk, Karpov, Leko, Polgar, Shirov 4.5.

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