Las Palmas (1996) The Supertorneo Las Palmas held from December 9th to the 21st, 1996 was a category XXI event. The world's six best players, including both World Champions, competed in a double round robin format. The participants were (in order of ELO): Garry Kasparov (2785), Anatoli Karpov (2775), Vladimir Kramnik (2765), Veselin Topalov (2750), Vishwanathan Anand (2735), and Vassily Ivanchuk (2730). The strongest tournament of the modern era (the only tournament with an average ELO of 2756), Kasparov emerged triumphant as "the best player in the world at that moment." 1 Kasparov 6.5/10 ** ½½ ½½ 1½ ½1 ½1 2 Anand 5.5/10 ½½ ** ½0 ½½ 1½ ½1 3 Kramnik 5.0/10 ½½ ½1 ** ½0 01 ½½ 4 Topalov 5.0/10 0½ ½½ ½1 ** 01 ½½ 5 Ivanchuk 4.0/10 ½0 0½ 10 10 ** ½½ 6 Karpov 4.0/10 ½0 ½0 ½½ ½½ ½½ ** Original collection: Game Collection: Las Palmas 1996, by User: suenteus po 147  page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 30  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Topalov vs Kasparov 0-1 59 1996 Las Palmas E00 Queen's Pawn Game 2. Anand vs Kramnik   ½-½ 20 1996 Las Palmas B65 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer Attack, 7...Be7 Defense, 9...Nxd4 3. Karpov vs Ivanchuk ½-½ 61 1996 Las Palmas E61 King's Indian 4. Kramnik vs Topalov ½-½ 80 1996 Las Palmas E97 King's Indian 5. Ivanchuk vs Kasparov   ½-½ 23 1996 Las Palmas B52 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack 6. Karpov vs Anand ½-½ 44 1996 Las Palmas E15 Queen's Indian 7. Topalov vs Karpov   ½-½ 27 1996 Las Palmas D27 Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical 8. Kasparov vs Kramnik ½-½ 19 1996 Las Palmas E71 King's Indian, Makagonov System (5.h3) 9. Anand vs Ivanchuk 1-0 46 1996 Las Palmas C78 Ruy Lopez 10. Kramnik vs Karpov   ½-½ 21 1996 Las Palmas A28 English 11. Topalov vs Ivanchuk 0-1 41 1996 Las Palmas B17 Caro-Kann, Steinitz Variation 12. Kasparov vs Anand ½-½ 63 1996 Las Palmas B92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation 13. Karpov vs Kasparov ½-½ 45 1996 Las Palmas D39 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation 14. Ivanchuk vs Kramnik 1-0 34 1996 Las Palmas E81 King's Indian, Samisch 15. Anand vs Topalov   ½-½ 29 1996 Las Palmas C78 Ruy Lopez 16. Kasparov vs Topalov   ½-½ 28 1996 Las Palmas C45 Scotch Game 17. Kramnik vs Anand 1-0 41 1996 Las Palmas A30 English, Symmetrical 18. Ivanchuk vs Karpov ½-½ 15 1996 Las Palmas C10 French 19. Topalov vs Kramnik 1-0 39 1996 Las Palmas E92 King's Indian 20. Anand vs Karpov 1-0 36 1996 Las Palmas D21 Queen's Gambit Accepted 21. Kasparov vs Ivanchuk 1-0 36 1996 Las Palmas B04 Alekhine's Defense, Modern 22. Kramnik vs Kasparov ½-½ 58 1996 Las Palmas D56 Queen's Gambit Declined 23. Karpov vs Topalov   ½-½ 70 1996 Las Palmas A70 Benoni, Classical with 7.Nf3 24. Ivanchuk vs Anand   ½-½ 29 1996 Las Palmas D21 Queen's Gambit Accepted 25. Kasparov vs Karpov 1-0 44 1996 Las Palmas E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical  page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 30    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)     Mar-12-13    matherd1: There's a good argument that this really was the strongest tournament ever held. 4 world champions all not that far from their strongest chess (although only Kasparov was probably at his peak), one player (allbeit young and not that close to his best at the time, but still highly rated) who nearly became champion twice and was world number one for quite a while, and Ivanchuck. Interesting also to see that Kaprov was still only rated 10 points behind Kasparov as late as 1996. I wonder if at the time he still thought he would have had a chance in a match. After all, it was only 2 years on from his famous performance at Linares in 1994. Mar-13-13    Chessinfinite: I tend to agree. It was a very tough event with the top 6 (or 7) ranked players. Definitely an argument stands for the toughest tournament of all time. The games were very well fought, and there were no 'outsiders.' I remember Garry Kasparov mentioning that winning this mattered a lot at that time, winner of that event would be known as the 'World Champion of tournaments'. Apr-03-13    matherd1: I thought it was Linares 1994 that Kasparov made the 'world champion of tournaments' remark about? Pre- the tournament obviously, I can't imagine Kasparov saying that about a tournament Kaprov had just won. Apr-03-13    suenteus po 147: Five out of six participants on this roster were current or future world champions. Has there ever been another tournament with a higher percentage of past/present/future world champions than 83%? Of course if Ivanchuk ever wins a WC then this jumps to a 100% and then I guess this tournament wins? Also, what kind of prize money was at stake here? If you've got the top six in the world (including both current world champions) for double rounds then I'm thinking you're meeting or surpassing Linares type funds at this point. Apr-04-13    VaselineTopLove: How does compare with Linares 1998 which also was touted as one of the strongest tournaments? Apr-04-13    WiseWizard: Wow what a tournament! Apr-04-13    Benzol: Is five World Champions in a tournament the greatest number there's ever been? Nottingham 1936 and the 1973 USSR Ch come to mind. Are there many others? NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply. 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