FOR MANY YEARS now, the annual supertournament
in Linares has been the strongest chess competition in the world,
and this year's edition is no exception. True, the organisers failed to reach
their goal of gathering the six highest rated players on the FIDE rating list -
World no. 5 Alexander Morozevich turned down his invitation - but I wouldn't
exactly call five out of six a disaster!
And besides: Having the reigning FIDE World
Champion Alexander Khalifman filling in for Morozevich, can hardly be bad for
public relations.
Round 1 (February 28)
Kasparov-Shirov 1-0
Leko-Anand 1/2-1/2
Khalifman-Kramnik 0-1
Kasparov vs Shirov
There has never been any love lost
between these two players, and relations went from bad to worse in 1998 when
Kasparov failed to find a sponsor for their scheduled WCC World Championships
match. Shirov had convincingly disposed of Vladimir Kramnik in the qualifier
match and understandably felt cheated when his big payday went up in
smoke.
The fact remains, though, that Shirov has never
managed to beat Kasparov, and it's therefore highly unlikely that he would have
any chances of winning a title match. Yes, he certainly deserved a shot at the
Champ, but what can you do if no one is willing to pay?
Playing black against his sworn enemy in the
first round, Shirov opted for the ultra-solid Petroff and showed some
excellent opening preparation. Kasparov attempted to liven things up with a pawn
sac on move 15, but Shirov maintained dynamic equilibrium by giving it back four
moves later.
The game seemed to be chugging along towards a
draw when Shirov suddenly lost his marbles in time pressure.
View Kasparov-Shirov
Leko vs Anand
Peter Leko has lately been going from strength
to strength, but the 20-year-old Hungarian, currently ranked number six in the
world, seems to put too much emphasis on facial protection when playing
his Top 10 colleagues. Although rumoured to be a Buddhist, I think Not Losing
is Leko's true religion.
World no. 2 Vishy Anand, who is due to face
Kasparov in a title match later this year, showed no ambition in his
round one encounter, but when you're black against one of the most solid players
on the face of the earth, a draw seems perfectly in order.
View Leko-Anand
Khalifman vs Kramnik
A very important game for the reigning
FIDE Champion. The general consensus seems to be that Khalifman doesn't even
deserve to be in the same ring as these guys, and his game has certainly been under par since winning the World Championship tournament last summer. A first round win over Kramnik would definitely have earned him some much needed respect.
As things turned out, however, he was
convincingly outplayed from a fairly level position, and the Big Boys
will now be lining up around the block to hammer him.
View Khalifman-Kramnik
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