| Morelia-Linares (2006) |
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The 23rd edition of the traditional Linares tournament was held for the first time in two different countries, with the first half in Morelia, Mexico (February) and the second half in Linares, Spain (March). The participants were FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov (Elo ranked #2 in the world, behind the now retired Garry Kasparov), Peter Svidler (#4), Levon Aronian (#5), Peter Leko (#7), Vassily Ivanchuk (#8), Etienne Bacrot (#12), Teimour Radjabov (#19) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (#56). Viswanathan Anand (#3) and the PCA World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (#6) did not take part. The organizers declined to adopt the so-called "Sofia rules" (introduced at MTel Masters (2005)), which said that the players could not draw by agreement, except through the arbiter. There was a rule in place which said that if two players had the same number of points, the result of the mini-match between them would be decisive. The total prize fund was 380.000 euros, with 100.000 euros to the winner. Games started at 3:30 pm local time. Time control: 2 hours 40 moves + 1 hour 20 moves + 30 minutes. The World Champion Topalov dropped two games in the first four rounds but then mounted a comeback that concluded with a victory over tournament leader Leko in the penultimate round to gain a four-way tie for first going into the final. In the final round, however, he played into a drawing line against tail-ender Vallejo, which allowed Aronian to take sole first place with a win over Leko. Young Radjabov impressed with his King's Indian defense and took second place based on his win against Topalov in Round 4. Morelia, Mexico (18-26 Feb) and Linares, Spain (3-11 March) Age Elo 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
1 Aronian 23 2752 ** 1½ ½0 ½1 0½ 1½ 1½ ½1 8½
2 Radjabov 18 2700 0½ ** 1½ 0½ ½1 ½1 1½ ½½ 8
3 Topalov 30 2801 ½1 0½ ** ½1 1½ 01 ½1 0½ 8
4 Leko 26 2740 ½0 1½ ½0 ** 1½ ½½ ½½ 1½ 7½
5 Ivanchuk 36 2729 1½ ½0 0½ 0½ ** 1½ ½0 ½1 6½
6 Svidler 29 2765 0½ 0½ 10 ½½ 0½ ** 1½ 1½ 6½
7 Bacrot 23 2717 0½ 0½ ½0 ½½ ½1 0½ ** ½1 6
8 Vallejo 23 2650 ½0 ½½ 1½ 0½ ½0 0½ ½0 ** 5
Category: XX (2732). Arbiters: Juan Vargas Sánchez and Faik Gasanov.The 1st Morelia Open was played 16-19 February. It was won by Lazaro Bruzon Batista with 6.5/7. The XII Anibal Open was this year a rapid tournament played in Linares 4-5 March. Evgenij Miroshnichenko won with 7.5/10. Sources
ChessBase, 2/15/2006 (https://en.chessbase.com/post/movin...)
ChessBase, 2/17/2006 (https://en.chessbase.com/post/morel...)
ChessBase, 2/27/2006 (https://en.chessbase.com/post/morel...)
ChessBase, 3/10/2006 (https://en.chessbase.com/post/linar...)
ChessBase, 3/11/2006 (https://en.chessbase.com/post/linar...)
FIDE rating list January 2006 (http://fidelists.blogspot.com/2008/...)
Mark Crowther in TWIC 593 (http://theweekinchess.com/html/twic...)
Ian Rogers in Tidskrift för Schack, 3/2006, pp. 4-27 (http://www.schack.se/tfsarkiv/histo...)
Michael Goeller in The Kenilworthian, 13 March 2006 (http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/...)
Jonathan Speelman in The Guardian, 19 March 2006 (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...)
Various authors in Peón de Rey, No. 53, April 2006, pp. 5-27 (https://e-nautia.com/santiago/disk/...) Round dates: February 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26 im Morelia, March 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 in Linares (from ChessBase and http://www.e3e5.com/article.php?id=...). Previous: Linares (2005). Next: Morelia-Linares (2007)
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 120 OF 120 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| Mar-13-06 | | acirce: Half of the tournament this year was held in Mexico. Mexico's highest rated player is Gilberto Hernandez (2534). He wasn't there. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | petrovalovski: He should have been, even Vallejo deserves a break one in a while. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | Ezzy: <acirce: Half of the tournament this year was held in Mexico. Mexico's highest rated player is Gilberto Hernandez (2534). He wasn't there> That's an excellent point. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | yoozum: I concede to <Ezzy> and <acirce>...you guys have some good points which I hadn't thought about. Well, maybe they're hoping that one day, Vallejo might be 2nd to last, as opposed to dead last ;-) |
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| Mar-13-06 | | meloncio: <Ezzy><I am not convinced that the Spanish public will be less interested in the event if there was no Spanish player worthy of being invited just to be a lamb to the slaughter.> You're right. IMHO, the "pressure" to include a Spanish player in the tournament doesn't come from sponsors nor chessfans, but from the spanish chess federation. A question of prestige (?) and tradition. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | Ezzy: <yoozum> No need to concede anything. Your points are quite valid in the real world, and are the same as the organisers who run this great tournament. But (my favourite word today) the organisers have to be careful in future, because a great tournament can lose it's status in the blink of an eye. I could at least understand Vellejo-Pons invitation if he had progressed during the year, but he has lost rating points in every chess event that he played in last year, and his rating fell dramatically. Not a good move by the organisers to invite him back this year. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | Ezzy: <meloncio> Well how nice is that! Having an opinion confirmed by a Spanish resident. Thanks
<meloncio>
If I was in shoes of Vellejo-Pons, I think my own pride would 'kick in' and I would refuse my invite on the grounds that this level of chess has now proved to be beyond me. |
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Mar-13-06
 | | plang: It was a statistical oddity that, despite a high % of decisive games, only Topalov and Svidler played two decisive games (they split). No one swept their two games with an opponent. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | yoozum: He did, however, do well in Cuernavaca, leading up to Linares. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | Ezzy: <yoozum: He did, however, do well in Cuernavaca, leading up to Linares.> Yes you are right, I forgot about that. That was a pretty good victory (+4) against the best 'up and coming' stars. |
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Mar-13-06
 | | Eric Schiller: XXIII SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (MEX/ESP), 18 ii-11 iii 2006cat. XX (2732)
---
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
---
1 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2752 ** =0 1= =1 0= 1= 1= =1 8.5 2808 2 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2801 =1 ** 0= =1 1= 01 =1 0= 8.0 2771 3 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2700 0= 1= ** 0= =1 =1 1= == 8.0 2786 4 Leko, Peter g HUN 2740 =0 =0 1= ** 1= == == 1= 7.5 2759 5 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729 1= 0= =0 0= ** 1= =0 =1 6.5 2703 6 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2765 0= 10 =0 == 0= ** 1= 1= 6.5 2698 7 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2717 0= =0 0= == =1 0= ** =1 6.0 2683 8 Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2650 =0 1= == 0= =0 0= =0 ** 5.0 2641 ---
That's the crosstable from TWIC. Now will all the bashers please take note that even the worst performance rating (last column) was a very respectable 2641, and that despite his comeback, it was a somewhat subpar performance from Topalov. There is certainly no evidence that any of the players does not deserve to play in an elite event. Vallejo Pons is still considered the "local" player from Spain, and traditionally big tournaments used to reserve a place for a local player, especially a young one. I think it is a good tradition, it creates local interest and often gives the stars opportunities to show off. Whenever the local wins, there is lots of celebration back home. So, there were no embarrassments in Linares this year, some great performances, some good ones and some subpar. There is no reason for complaints, we were highly entertained. |
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| Mar-14-06 | | alexandrovm: <...There is certainly no evidence that any of the players does not deserve to play in an elite event. Vallejo Pons is still considered the "local" player from Spain, and traditionally big tournaments used to reserve a place for a local player, especially a young one. I think it is a good tradition, it creates local interest and often gives the stars opportunities to show off. ...> I agree |
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| Mar-14-06 | | percyblakeney: <Now will all the bashers please take note that even the worst performance rating (last column) was a very respectable 2641, and that despite his comeback, it was a somewhat subpar performance from Topalov.> I think they took note of that already, considering all the posts on Topalov's amateur yahoo patzer status and so on from the first half of the tournament... |
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| Mar-14-06 | | alexandrovm: < considering all the posts on Topalov's amateur yahoo patzer status and so on from the first half of the tournament...> yep, a very bad start. What can we say, he is only human. |
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| Mar-14-06 | | Jafar219: Eric Schiller
<As we have known from international grandmaster Teimour Radjabov, he has been proclaimed the second on closing ceremony of the super-tournament Linares-2006. The mistake on our site (as well as on the official site of the tournament) has been connected with ignorance of a new rule of places in the tournament this year, determining, that, in case of identical total points at participants, the best result between them is considered. As Teimour Radjabov won his mini-match against Veselin Topalov just him has been given the 2nd place. We apologize grandmaster Radjabov.> http://www.ruschess.com/ |
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Mar-14-06
| | Eric Schiller: <JAfar> Radjabov also had the better performance rating, which is the standard I use, though it does favor lower-rated players somewhat, especially in a round robin. |
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| Mar-14-06 | | The Basherlor: It is a shame the poor coverage Linares Tournament had from chess press. You even look for Google news and there is no big title saying "Aronian won Linares", that is the poor image of chess in the world. Chessbase and TWIC reports with analysis were always late ... well at least this is a realistic view of the state of our sport. And BTW, I am concerned, when is the next tournament?? Linares topic is out, but we still need to bash, so I guess we should use this page (or Kramnik's) to do that until the next tournament. |
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Mar-14-06
 | | jaime gallegos: What I do really hate most is the ELO rating Vallejo gets, he is going to reach 2700 someday , just for playing in elite Super GM tournaments ( Linares, Dos Hermanas ) !!! |
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| Mar-14-06 | | Veselin Anderson: Well all things come with price. If Vallejo does join 2700+ club someday, he won't be happy having finished last in Linares year after year. It gets depressing after a while. |
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| Mar-15-06 | | trumbull0042: Vallejo's performance rating at Linares this year was 2642 (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...). What makes you think Vallejo will reach 2700? |
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| Mar-15-06 | | Bobak Zahmat: VallejoY won't get 2700 ELO rating by only playing Linare <Jaime gallegos>. Anyhow 2700-club is not that especial anymore. These days there are too many 2700 players, I think if you want to join the elite of chess, you're rating must be around 2730+!!! |
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Mar-15-06
| | plang: As long as Spain has a player rated as high as Vallejo it makes sense to invite him. It promotes local interest and also give Vallejo valuable experience against top competition which gives him the best chance to reach his potential. |
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Mar-21-06
 | | offramp: All bulletins will be deleted from http://freemason.mylivepage.com/fil... in about 2 days time; so have a look and DL now if you want. When you are there it might be better to right click the link and save as... |
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| Apr-02-06 | | blackburne: Eiditions of Linares Tournament in:
http://www.ajedrezdeataque.com/05%2... |
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| Nov-18-06 | | Bobak Zahmat: The participants of Linares-Moreila tournament 2007 has been revealed GM Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2813
GM Viswanathan Anand India 2779
GM Peter Svidler Russland 2750
GM Alexander Morozevich Russland 2747
GM Levon Aronian Armenia 2741
GM Peter Leko Ungarn 2741
GM Teimour Radjabov Aserbadsjan 2729
GM Magnus Carlsen Norge 2698 |
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