The fourth edition of the Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez "Ciudad de Linares" was organized under the direction of its founder, Luis Rentero Suarez. It was intended to be a Category XV event, and had been moved to February so that it did not overlap with the Hoogovens (1983) tournament. The players were World Champion Anatoly Karpov (Elo ranked #1 in the world), Ulf Andersson (#4), Boris Spassky (#9), Jan Timman (#10), Yasser Seirawan (#12), Vlastimil Hort (#16), Tony Miles (#17), Efim Geller (#23), Artur Yusupov (#27), Gyula Sax (#28), and Bent Larsen (#34). Ljubomir Ljubojevic (#3) (who lived in the area) was ready to play, but withdrew when he learned that Robert Huebner (#5), Mikhail Tal (#7), and Lev Polugaevsky (#19) had been replaced by Sax, Geller and Yusupov. Rentero attempted to have Manuel Rivas Pastor (#164) or someone to replace him, but it was too late and the tournament started on Saturday 12 February with 11 players. This was not ideal - the tournament category went down and the fans had Ljubo as their favorite, in the absence of Spanish players (they turned their sympathies to Spassky and Larsen instead). Moreover, snowfall had dusted Andalucía and the Hotel Cervantes (where the players were staying) had no heat. At one time or another, almost all the participants had bad days in terms of flu and played in poor physical condition.

Despite his illness (or perhaps because of it), the former world champion Spassky edged out Karpov by half a point for clear first. His grand prize was $6,000 (the total prize purse was $28,000, or 3,640,000 pesetas, not counting appearance fees). Spassky, Karpov and Andersson (who ended behind Karpov on Sonneborn-Berger score) were undefeated. Larsen had the fever too. He played three of his adjourned games on the second rest day and lost all three. The participants voted for Karpov vs Sax, 1983 as the best game.

Casa de Cultura, Linares, Spain, 12-25 February 1983

            Age Elo   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
 1 Spassky   46 2605  * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1  6½
 2 Karpov    31 2710  ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1  6
 3 Andersson 31 2630  ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1  6
 4 Yusupov   23 2565  ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 0  5½
 5 Miles     27 2585  ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1  5½
 6 Sax       31 2560  ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * 0 1 ½ 1 1  5½
 7 Timman    31 2605  0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 * 1 1 ½ 0  5
 8 Geller    57 2575  ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 0 * ½ ½ 1  5
 9 Hort      39 2585  ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1  5
10 Seirawan  22 2600  0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1  3
11 Larsen    47 2555  0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 *  2

Sources

FIDE rating list January 1983 (http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198...)

F. D. in Butlleti d'Escacs 33 (July 1983), p. 30 (http://www.historiadelajedrezespano...)

Tidskrift för Schack, March-April 1983, pp. 80-86 (http://www.schack.se/tfsarkiv/histo...)

Hector B. Kuperman in El País, 27 February 1983 (http://elpais.com/diario/1983/02/27...)

Robert Byrne in New York Times, 24 May 1983 (http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/24/n...)

Roman Toran Albero in La Vanguardia, 11 February 1983, p. 37 (http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/...)

José María González and Jaan Eslon in Jaque 135 (April 1983), pp. 134-139 (http://www.bartelski.pl/olimpbase/l...)

Previous edition: Linares (1981). Next: Linares (1985).

Original collections: Game Collection: Linares 1983 by User: suenteus po 147 and Game Collection: Linares 1983 by User: Tabanus. Round dates (from De Telegraaf, Het Vrije Volk and EFE reports in ABC Madrid and El Mundo Deportivo): February 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25.