The Hindu : Leko takes his maiden Linares title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003

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Sport - Chess

Leko takes his maiden Linares title

By Our Chess Correspondent

Chennai March 10. Peter Leko charted a new course in his career by winning his first City of Linares super category chess tournament title at Hotel Anibal on Sunday.

Leko, the 1979-born from Szeged in Hungary had four victories, two defeats and six draws as he accumulated seven points. His previous best was winning the Dortmund Tournament in 1999 and the Dortmund Qualifier in 2002 to emerge as the challenger for Vladimir Kramnik's world title.

As was expected, draws occurred in the two top games, leaving Leko the winner on tie-break. Leko held Kramnik, who led the tournament from the start, to a 35-move draw in the final round.

Leko's game has gained strength over the years and by winning at Linares, he would be helping his own cause — of finding a sponsor for his World title match against Kramnik. The match has been recognised by FIDE as part of the unification deal and the winner of this will clash with the winner of the FIDE title match (Kasparov v Ponomariov).

Since 1996, three players — Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik have dominated the Linares event. Now Leko has made a dent and if he can prove it again, there would be four players up there to be counted upon.

Kramnik's try in the final day had few surprises. He opened with the king pawn as white and went for the closed variation against the Sicilian Defence. His protected passed pawn in the centre of the board was broken by a pawn sacrifice by Leko on the 27th turn and thereafter a draw was never in doubt.

For Kramnik it was a big recovery after a below average show in the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee. But the tail end of the event was disappointing, as he could not win first place.

Hit by a disastrous penultimate round defeat to Leko, Viswanathan Anand made a draw with the white pieces in the final round against Garry Kasparov to take the third place on tie-break. Both players finished with 6.5 points.

In their last round encounter, Kasparov played the Sicilian Dragon variation for a mild opening surprise. He had played that last with big success against Anand in the 1995 World Championship match in New York. Anand castled king-side and the Russian played aggressively to open up the king bishop file, accepting a big weakness on the queen file.

On move 24, Anand made his intentions of a draw clear by offering exchange of queens. Black could not avoid that and after 32 moves the Russian proposed a draw when an opposite colour bishop ending was imminent. Anand found no reason to reject it although he had an extra pawn at the end.

Anand finished a shade above than what he was expected to do and the two defeats in the rook endings spoilt his otherwise extraordinary showing. He was punishing in many white games.

His defensive play was good but the technique had some flaws once he got to the fourth hour and beyond. It was a better performance than the previous year and a satisfactory result judging from the placing.

But for the way Anand started, the finish was a little disappointing. Anand made 1-1 with Leko, 1-1 with Kramnik, 0.5-1.5 against Kasparov, 1.5-0.5 against Ponomariov, 1-1 against Vallejo and 1.5-0.5 against Radjabov. Anand's rating should marginally go up, or remain static for his rating is 2753 and his performance is 2758.

Leko, Kramnik and Anand move on to Roquebrune, France on Thursday to play in the elite Amber chess tournament from March 14-28.

Kasparov should realise that playing humans immediately after computer matches and vice-versa are things in the `not-to-do' book. He did not have his usual share of wins and the sparkle of his eight previous title wins was missing.

Ponomariov made up in the end by beating Vallejo to the fifth place. The reigning FIDE world champion scored a 54-move win in the last round. Vallejo enjoyed an extra pawn advantage but played the rook ending poorly to lose. Despite the defeat, Vallejo finished much above what he was expected to do in the event.

The results (final round): Vladimir Kramnik drew with Peter Leko, Viswanathan Anand drew with Garry Kasparov, Francisco Vallejo lost to Ruslan Ponomariov, Teimour Radjabov - bye.

Final placings: 1-2. Peter Leko (Hun), Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 7 each; 3-4. Viswanathan Anand (Ind), Garry Kasparov (Rus) 6.5; 5. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 5.5; 6. Francisco Vallejo (Esp) 5, 7. Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 4.5.

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