Linares round 1
Vallejo Pons 1/2 Topalov
Aronian 1/2 Grischuk
Gelfand 1/2 Gashimov
Vallejo Pons (2705) – Topalov (2805) [C95]
Linares (1), 13.02.2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0–0 9.h3 Nb8 10.d4 Nbd7 11.Nbd2 Bb7 12.Bc2 Re8 13.a4 Bf8 14.Bd3 c6 15.b3 g6 16.Qc2 Nh5 17.Bf1 Qb6 18.Bb2 exd4 19.cxd4 d5 20.exd5 cxd5 21.Rxe8 Rxe8 22.axb5 axb5 23.Qd3 Bc6 24.g3 Nhf6 25.Ne5 Nxe5 26.dxe5 Ne4 27.Nxe4 dxe4 28.Qc3 Bg7 29.Rc1 Bxe5 30.Qxc6 Qxc6 31.Rxc6 Bxb2 32.Bxb5 Re7 33.Rc8+ Kg7 34.Re8 Rxe8 35.Bxe8 Bc3 36.Kf1 f5 37.Ke2 Kf6 38.f3 exf3+ 39.Kxf3 h5 40.h4 Ba5 41.Kg2 ½–½
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Aronian (2781) – Grischuk (2736) [E25]
Linares, 13.02.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Qa5 9.e4 Qxc3 10.Qxc3 Nxc3 11.dxc5 Na4 12.Be3 Bd7 13.Rb1 b6 14.cxb6 axb6 15.Bb5 Bxb5 16.Rxb5 Nd7 17.Ne2 Nac5 18.Bc1 Nd3+ 19.Kd2 Nxc1 20.Rxc1 Ke7 21.Rc3 Rhc8 22.Rxc8 Rxc8 23.h4 Ra8 24.Rb3 Nc5 25.Rxb6 Rxa3 26.Nf4 Ra2+ ½–½
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Other than the nearly invisible Topalov, this seems a dull line up for such a formerly prestigious tournament. Is Linares dying?
No, the true expert watches this with excitement.
You want to see action? What about car races or boxing?
Who would you rather see, Yancey? Who would you consider exciting? Who would make this prestigious? From where I’m sitting, it’s a beast of a field with a number of fighting elite and superelite GMs.
As was before with TAL, FISCHER or with KASPAROV…..now there is again only one ‘Mr.Chess’ and that’s Magnus CARLSEN.
So, there are tournaments with CARLSEN and tourneys without CARLSEN.
Linares10 is without…
Spain is going through financial hell – kudos for managing to run a tournament at all.
Gelfand was impressive during the World Cup. Aronian is at the point in his career where he could suddenly eclipse everyone. Gashimov is very inventive. Vallejo Pons sees deep into positions. Grischuk needs to find out what’s important – chess or poker? And we haven’t seen Topalov in action since Nanjing.
What’s not to like about this tournament?