Leko leads at Linares after 12 rounds; Aronian ½ point back

[Jack Rabbit]

Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko continues to lead the 23rd Annual Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in Andalusia, Spain with 7½ points after all games in the twelfth round ended in draws yesterday.

Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian, 23, a rising star on the international chess circuit, broke a three-way tie for second in round 11 on Tuesday when he defeated Francisco Vallejo of Spain in the only decisive game of that round. Aronian, with 7 points, is only a half point behind Leko. FIDE champion Veselin Topalov and 18-year-old grandmaster Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan are tied for third with 6½ points each. Topalov and Radjabov faced each other in round 11 in a game that ended in a draw.



Aronian took sole possession of second place with a win over Vallejo in Tuesday's action

A player is awarded a full point for each victory while draws are worth a half point each. Topalov's four wins are the most of any of the eight participants in the tournament, but he has also lost three games. Only Vallejo and grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, both of whom are out of the running at or near the bottom of the standings, have lost more games than Topalov in the tournament. They have lost four games each. Tournament leader Leko has won three games without a loss in twelve rounds.

The players have today off. Action resumes tomorrow (Friday). The tournament concludes Saturday.

Leko will have his work cut out for him in the last two rounds. Tomorrow he will play Black against Topalov and Saturday he will have White against Aronian in what may be a showdown for the tournament championship.

The Linares Tournament is one of the strongest annual events on the international chess circuit. Last year's tournament was won by former world champion Garry Kasparov, who announced his retirement from competitive chess following the last round of the event.

Photo from ChessBase.com