Round 1 23rd February 2002

WELCOME TO LINARES – AGAIN!

IT’S February: back home they’re shovelling snow off the path with such an expertise that if it was included in the Winter Olympics, then Scotland would be favourites to give Team GB yet another medal to add to their tally of three so far in Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here in a tee-shirt and shorts, sipping a pinã colada, whilst soaking up the glorious rays, all of which can only mean one thing: it’s Linares time as the chess world makes the annual pilgrimage to Don Luis Rentero’s Anibal Hotel in the little Andalusian city to sort out, as Garry Kasparov would have it, ‘who is who for the coming year.’

Of course, getting to Linares (pronounced: lEna-rAs) is always a bit of an adventure – mainly involving Spanish taxi drivers. After a trouble-free flight to Madrid, you head to the local train station via taxi. It never fails to amaze me how much they charge for such journeys. With the meter clearly showing 15.70 euro for the trip, I’m of course charged the obligatory “tourist fee” which naturally doubles the fare. Never argue. Take my tip and don’t give a tip!

Once on the train, you sit back and watch a film (Nurse Betty, in Spanish, obviously) to kill some of the three and a half hours before you get to Linares...or at least quite near to Linares. The joke goes that once you get there, you’re not. Linares shares a station with the little town of Baez.

Once you get out of Baez Station, it suddenly hits you - there’s a vast nothingness there. I joked last week with John Saunders (editor of that august organ British Chess Magazine) that what awaits you is something similar to that scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the two boys decide it’ll be safer moving their entrepreneurial enterprise to Bolivia. On arriving, Butch turns round to the Kid and asks “They DO have banks here, don’t they?”.

Well, I felt like asking the same question about taxis. Arriving at the reasonable time of 8.00pm, and with quite a lot of people getting off the train here, there seemed to be a very large queue for the seemingly non-existent taxis. Then it suddenly dawned on me: they were all watching the football!

It’s this infuriating, care-free attitude that the Spaniards have to the little mundane things in life (like work) that makes manãna (usually accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders) such a vital part of their vocabulary. This attitude can sometimes become irritating when, after 30 minutes stuck in Baez, you try your hand at the local lingo by phoning a taxi company to ask for the time of the next available cab to Linares. Time, of course is fundamentally immaterial to the Spanish because it suggests a limit to freedom, and a limit to freedom definitely suggests a curb on enjoyment. Eventually the cab arrives (and about five minutes after the final whistle!) and takes me the five miles or so to Linares.

With a population of around 60,000, Linares is a city that regales in its former industrial past of silver and lead mining which brought prosperity to the city. The mines have long gone and have been replaced by the olive industry and the local Suzuki car plant, but the association with the mining industry lives on in Linares, who are rightly proud of this former glory.

And this association with mining lives on in the tournament. Apart from the fact that the winners’ trophy depicts a mine head, this year at the drawing of lots the players had to pick a bronze statuette of a miner, underneath which would be the draw numbers for the players in the tournament. On arriving by bus from Anibal Hotel to the Teatro Cervantes for the Opening Ceremony, it was standing room only - and trust me to be the one who had to share a hand-rail with an upbeat Garry Kasparov, who’d obviously made a full recovery under the healing hands of Dr McAfee from the recent viral infection that caused him to withdraw from Corus.

When Ruslan Ponomariov won his Fide title in Moscow, Gazza hit the youngster with a big broadside claiming that he wouldn’t necessarily know who he was if he sat down beside him. Guess what? The young upstart made a point of sitting beside numero uno, who simply ignored him. Could have been that they hadn’t been introduced yet? On the opposite side of SuperMario sat a brooding Vassily Ivanchuk, who was no doubt looking for revenge after blaming those nasty Fide time controls for his dismal performance in Moscow.

As luck would have it, Big Chucky didn’t have long to wait with the big opening round pairing seeing the two again going head to head...

Ponomariov,R (2727) - Ivanchuk,V (2717) [C18]

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 Chucky moves away from the Classical to the Winawer. 4 e5 c5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 Ne7 7 Qg4 0–0 [7 ..cxd4 8 Qxg7 Rg8 9 Qxh7 was seen in the famous 1946 USSR vs Great Britain Radio match when Alexander beat Botvinnik.; 7 ..Kf8!? is a popular risky alternative.] 8 Bd3 f5 9 exf6 Rxf6 10 Bg5 Rf7 11 Qh5 g6 12 Qd1 Nbc6 13 Nf3 Qf8 14 0–0 c4 15 Be2 h6 16 Bc1 A popular continuation. White is preparing the set-up Bc1 and Qd2, reserving after a4 the diagonal a3-f8 for the bishop. The most popular alternative is 16 Be3. 16 ..Bd7 17 Ne1N

Ponomariov comes up with a new idea rather than the standard a4 and Ba3. To be honest, it doesn't look all that effective, however it was enough to confuse Chucky who started eating into his time trying to find a plan. 17 ..g5 18 g3 Nf5 [Black has to be careful - striking out too soon is just what white wants: 18 ..e5 19 dxe5 Nxe5 20 f4! gxf4 (20 ..Bh3?! 21 Ng2 N5g6 (21 ..gxf4 22 Rxf4 Rxf4 23 Nxf4) 22 fxg5 hxg5 23 Bxg5 Rf5 (23 ..Rxf1+ 24 Bxf1 Qf5 25 Bh6) 24 Qd2 Qf7 25 g4! Rxf1+ 26 Rxf1 Qe6 27 Bxe7 Nxe7 28 Qg5+ Qg6 29 Qxe7 Re8 30 Rf6 winning.) 21 Rxf4 Rxf4 22 Bxf4 N5g6 23 Be3 and white is slightly better here - though there's nothing really in the position.] 19 Ng2 Qg7 20 f4 Nd6 21 Qe1 b5 22 fxg5 Rxf1+ 23 Bxf1 hxg5 24 Ne3 Rf8 25 Bg2 a5 26 Bd2

26 ..Qg6 [Black opts to consolidate first. However, perhaps now was the chance for black to make the breakthrough, with: 26 ..b4! 27 axb4 axb4 28 cxb4 (28 Ra6 bxc3 29 Bxc3 Nb5 30 Nxd5 Nxc3 31 Nxc3 (31 Qxc3? Nxd4! 32 Ne7+ Kf7!) 31 ..Qxd4+ 32 Kh1 Nb4 33 Rxe6! just in the nick of time! 33 ..Bxe6 (33 ..Nxc2 34 Rg6+ Kf7 35 Qf1+! Kxg6 36 Qxf8=) 34 Qxe6+ Rf7 35 Ne2 Qa1+ 36 Ng1 and the black king is too exposed to play for the win - white will soon find a repetition.) 28 ..Nxd4 Black can claim some advantage in the position as he does have the active pieces - however, is it enough to win?] 27 Ng4 Rf5 [27 ..Ne4!? 28 Qe3 (28 Bxe4? dxe4 29 Qe3 e5! 30 Nxe5 Nxe5 31 dxe5 Rf3 and black's very active.) 28 ..Nxd2 29 Qxd2; 27 ..Qxc2? 28 Bxg5 Qg6 29 h4 and white's better.] 28 Qe3 Kg7 29 Rb1! Kh7 30 a4! bxa4 31 Bc1 Suddenly white's found a way to activate all his pieces. 31 ..Rf7 32 Ba3 Qxc2 [32 ..Nf5 33 Qe2 and the threat of Rb6 is getting awkward to defend against 33 ..Ncxd4 34 cxd4 Nxd4 35 Qe5 Qxc2 36 Re1 Qd2 (36 ..Qc3 37 Bc5 Nb5 38 Qxc3 Nxc3 39 Ne5 Rg7 40 Bf8 Be8 41 Bh3! Rb7 42 Bxe6 and the black king is in a fix with the swarm of white pieces around it.) 37 Bc1 Qc3 38 Rd1!] 33 Rc1 Qf5

34 Bh3 With Chucky now in serious time-trouble, the active white pieces prove just too much for him to handle. 34 ..Ne4 35 Ne5! Qf2+ 36 Qxf2 Rxf2 [36 ..Nxf2 37 Nxf7 Nxh3+ 38 Kg2 g4 39 Rb1! is no better.] 37 Nxd7 Ra2 38 Bc5 Nd2 39 Bg2 stopping black's last cheapo with Nf3+. 39 ..a3 40 Nf8+ Kh6 41 Re1 e5 42 dxe5 g4 43 e6 Nf3+ 44 Bxf3 gxf3 45 Kf1 1–0

Vallejo Pons,F (2629) - Kasparov,G (2838) [A28]

1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 e4 Bb4 5 d3 d6 6 h3 0–0 7 Be2 Ne7 8 0–0 c6 9 a3 Bxc3 10 bxc3 Ng6 11 Re1 Re8 12 Bf1 Bd7 13 Qb3 Qc8 14 Rb1 b6 15 Kh2 h6 16 g3 Qc7 17 Bg2 Be6 18 Nd2 Rad8 19 a4 d5 20 a5 dxc4 21 axb6 axb6 22 dxc4 Nd7 23 Bf1 Ne7 24 Qc2 Nc8 25 Nb3 c5 26 Be3 Nd6 27 Nd2 Ra8 28 Ra1 f6 29 Ra2 Rxa2 30 Qxa2 Nb8 31 f4 Nc6 32 f5 Bf7 33 g4 Na5 34 h4 Kf8 35 g5 hxg5 36 hxg5 Ke7 37 Kg1 Rh8 38 Bf2 Rh5 39 Nf3 Qc6

40 Qc2 Bxc4? [It's surprising how all the difficult options can come just when you are rushing to make the time control. Kasparov had just under a minute on the clock, and missed perhaps his best shot. However, he probably didn't have enough time to calculate all the complications after 40 ..Nxf5! 41 Bg2 Nd6 42 Bh4! Moves like this probably put some doubt in Kasparov's head. For the pawn, suddenly the white pieces spring to life - but is it enough? 42 ..Naxc4 43 Bh3 b5 (43 ..fxg5 44 Bxg5+ Kf8 45 Bg4 Rh7 46 Nh4 b5 47 Qf2 Kg8 48 Nf5 and white is not without chances here.) 44 Bg4 Rh8 45 Qa2 Kf8 (45 ..Qb7 46 Qf2!) 46 gxf6 Nxe4! 47 fxg7+ Kxg7 48 Qg2 Kf8 and black is much better - though still has some work to do to convert for the point.] 41 Bg2 Nf7 42 Qd1! The retreat left Kasparov visibly stunned as he started to shake his head in disbelief. His body language said it all as he suddenly realised he was no longer winning. 42 ..Bb3 [What else? If the rook retreats then Nh4 is strong. Also 42 ..Qd7? 43 gxf6+ gxf6 44 Nxe5! and if anything white is better now.] 43 Nxe5! Bxd1 44 Nxc6+ Nxc6 45 Rxd1 Nxg5 46 Rb1 Nh3+ 47 Bxh3 Rxh3 48 Rxb6 Kd6 49 Kg2 Rxc3 ½–½

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk

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