Linares chess tournament

The annual Linares chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess, being one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the Wijk aan Zee Corus and Dortmund events.

The event, sponsored by Spanish businessman Luis Rentero, was first held in 1978. At that time it was not an elite event and was won by the relatively unknown Swede, Jaan Eslon (on tie-break from the Argentine Roberto Debarnot). After the following year's event, it was held every other year until 1987 when no tournament took place: that being the year that Linares hosted the Candidates' Final, a match to determine a challenger for Kasparov's world title featuring Anatoly Karpov and Andrei Sokolov. The postponed 1987 event was held over until 1988 and the tournament has since become an annual event, with the exception of 1996, when the Women's World Chess Championship was held.

In 1998, the format of the tournament changed from a single round-robin tournament to a seven player double round-robin event (meaning that each participant plays every other participant twice, once with each color).

Rentero is notorious for being a strong opponent of short draws in chess, to the point that in 1991 he offered cash bonuses for playing longer games.

From 2006 to the present day, the first half of the tournament has taken place in the Mexican city of Morelia. The second half still takes place in Linares. Consequently the event is sometimes referred to as Morelia - Linares in databases and the like.

Winners

*1978 Jaan Eslon
*1979 Larry Christiansen
*1981 Anatoly Karpov and Larry Christiansen
*1983 Boris Spassky
*1985 Ljubomir Ljubojević and Robert Hübner
*1988 Jan Timman
*1989 Vassily Ivanchuk
*1990 Garry Kasparov
*1991 Vassily Ivanchuk
*1992 Garry Kasparov
*1993 Garry Kasparov
*1994 Anatoly Karpov (the first Category XVIII tournament ever held)
*1995 Vassily Ivanchuk
*1997 Garry Kasparov
*1998 Viswanathan Anand
*1999 Garry Kasparov
*2000 Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov
*2001 Garry Kasparov
*2002 Garry Kasparov
*2003 Péter Lékó (Joint winner with Vladimir Kramnik; but had a better tiebreak score)
*2004 Vladimir Kramnik
*2005 Garry Kasparov (with the same score as Veselin Topalov; won on tiebreak because of more wins with black)
*2006 Levon Aronian
*2007 Viswanathan Anand
*2008 Viswanathan Anand

Full Results

1999

Crosstable from [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic227#2 TWIC 227] :

XVI Ciudad de Linares (ESP), ii-iii 1999 cat. XX (2735) -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Kasparov, Gary g RUS 2812 ** = =1 = 1= 11 =1 11 10.5 2817 2 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2751 = ** = = = = =1 1= 8.0 2782 3 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2781 =0 = ** = =1 = 1= =1 8.0 2778 4 Leko, Peter g HUN 2694 = = = ** = 1= 0= 0= 6.5 2712 5 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2700 0= = =0 = ** =0 =1 = 6.0 2690 6 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2714 00 = = 0= =1 ** 1= 0= 6.0 2688 7 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2713 =0 =0 0= 1= =0 0= ** =1 5.5 2658 8 Adams, Michael g ENG 2716 00 0= =0 1= = 1= =0 ** 5.5 2657

2007

Final Results of 2007: [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic644.html]

XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (MEX/ESP), 17 ii-10 iii 2007cat. XX (2746) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2779 ** 11 1= 0= = = = 1= 8.5 2820 2 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2690 00 ** 1= = = 11 1= =0 7.5 2782 3 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2741 0= 0= ** = =1 =1 01 =1 7.5 2775 4 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2744 1= = = ** = 0= = = 7.0 2745 5 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2728 = = =0 = ** = = =1 7.0 2748 6 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2750 = 00 =0 1= = ** 1= = 6.5 2715 7 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2783 = 0= 10 = = 0= ** = 6.0 2690 8 Leko, Peter g HUN 2749 0= =1 =0 = =0 = = ** 6.0 2695

References

* [http://previews.chessdom.com/linares-chess-2008] - a brief history and news of the 2008 event.
* [http://www.toledochess.org/Historic/Tournaments/Linares/Linares.php] - winners, crosstables from 1990-2006

External links

* [http://www.ajedrezmorelialinares.com.mx/english/index.htm Official Website]
* [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+chess+++ajedrez+++Linares+++Schach++%C3%A9checs++Scacchi++Schaken++%D0%A8%D0%B0%D1%85++++++&search=Search36 36 videos of chess,20 games of Linares,2007 and 16 games of previous tournament.]
* [http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=158 Where is Linares? from Chess base]