Kasparov draws again, Anand wins in second round play at Linares

[Jack Rabbit]

EDITED for typing

Former world champion Garry Kasparov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan battled to a hard-fought draw today in the second round of the 22nd Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in that town of Jaen Province, Spain.

Both players drew their respective games in the first round on Wednesday.

In other games, India's Viswanathan Anand defeated Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Hungarian Peter Leko and Britain's Michael Adams played to a pacific draw. A seventh competitor, Spaniard Francisco Vallejo, had a bye.

Topalov won the only decisive game in the first round while Anand had a bye. Anand's victory effectively gives him the tournament lead after two rounds. Each competitor will play a total of twelve games in the fourteen-round tournament.

Anand, the world's second ranked player behind Kasparov, won a pawn early in his game with Topalov and descended into a superior endgame.

Topalov

Anand

Position after Black's 55th move

In this position, White is a piece up, but Black's two advanced passed pawns give him chances to avoid loss. Anand put the game away with the excellent move 56. Be2+. The move gains time with a check, covers the coronation square f1 and blocks the advance of Black's e-pawn. Topalov played 56. -- Kb4, which is the best move in the position, but resigned after 57.Kc2 Ka3 58.Kb1 e3 59.Ka1. Black is in a Zugzwang, a German word meaning compulsion to move, defined as a position where one has only losing moves available. Black's pawns can make no further progress without being taken and White's King will escort his own a-pawn forward when the Black King gives way, as he must.

Diagram from ChessBase.com

[yinkaafrica]

1. good update

[edbermac]

2. So when is the world championship gonna be held?

[Jack Rabbit]

3. There was a world championship last year in Switzerland

The current world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, drew his match with Leko and retained his title.

Kramnik is ill and is under doctor's orders to curtail his playing activity. He played in Wijk aan Zee last month with only a +1 score. The tournament was won by Leko with Anand finishing second. Kasparov did not play at Wijk aan Zee.

The reason Kasparov did not play is because he was supposed to play Kasimdzhanov in a match aimed at reunifying the world championship. However, plans for the match fell through and it was not held. Kasparov, angry at the world governing body of chess, FIDE, for failing to secure the match, has withdrawn his support for the reunification efforts.

As you may know, Kasparov and FIDE have had a long-running feud. Tired of incompetence and corruption in FIDE, Kasparov and British grandmaster Nigel Short formed a rival association, the Professional Chess Association (PCA) in 1993 and played their world championship match under its auspices. FIDE stripped Kasparov of the title, although nobody in the world recognized that except FIDE. However, Kasparov's efforts at keeping the world championship cycle afloat without FIDE have proved insufficient. While he was able to hold title match against Short in 1993 and Anand in 1995, he was unable to play Alexei Shirov, a player who won a series of events that should have entitled him to a match, due to a lack of financial backing. In 2000, Kasparov played Kramnik, one of the players who lost to Shirov in the qualifying events.

In 1999, FIDE introduced a new method of choosing the world champion in a single-elimination or knock-out tournament. The competitors play two games against each other and, if the score is 1-1, play two more; if the score is 2-2, they have tiebreaker games until somebody wins. The winner advances to the next round and the loser is out.

While I consider winning this event to be an achievement, it seems a bit pretentious to call the winner world champion.

The current world champion, that is, the winner of the most recent such event held last year in Libya, is Kasimdzhanov. He is ranked twenty-fifth behind Kasparov. Kramnik, the classical world champion by virtue of his victory over Kasparov in the match held in London in 2000, is ranked a more credible fourth behind Kasparov, Anand and Topalov.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Round 3 Games

Round 3 begins Friday at 15:30 in Linares (14:30 GMT/6:30 am PST)

White player listed first:

Leko v. Anand
Kasimdzhanov v. Adams
Vallejo v. Kasparov

Topalov has the bye.

More analysis of games from the second round are at ChessBase.com.

The games may be viewed in progress on the official tounament site.

[edbermac]

5. Korchnoi-Karpov and Kasparov-Karpov...those were REAL matches!

Kasparov is the real champ IMHO...he's certainly the best player...

[Jack Rabbit]

7. I'm disappointed that Kasparov will take no further part in reunifaction

Theoretically, he has until Saturday to change his mind. I hope he does.

I'd like to see him retake the title. He is not a great as he once was, but he is still the best.

[edbermac]

6. Dupe delete

Kasparov is the real champ IMHO...he's certainly the best player...

[SeanQuinn]

8. Agreed.