Today is the day when Anand won his first Linares title in 1998 (yeah Carlsen was just 8 years old!). Anand again won Linares nearly a decade later in 2007 and 2008!
The “Wimbledon of Chess” was played from 22-Feb-1998 to 9-Mar-1998.
XV Ciudad de Linares (ESP), 1998 ————————————————————— 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ————————————————————— 1 Viswanathan Anand g IND ** 1= 0= == 1= =1 =1 7½ 2 Alexei Shirov g ESP 0= ** == =1 10 10 11 7 3 Garry Kasparov g RUS 1= == ** == == == == 6½ 4 Vladimir Kramnik g RUS == =0 == ** =1 == 1= 6½ 5 Peter Svidler g RUS 0= 01 == =0 ** 10 =1 5½ 6 Vassily Ivanchuk g UKR =0 01 == == 01 ** 0= 5 7 Veselin Topalov g BUL =0 00 == 0= =0 1= ** 4
Round 10
The “Wimbledon of Chess” was played from 22-Feb-1998 to 9-Mar-1998.
XV Ciudad de Linares (ESP), 1998 ————————————————————— 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ————————————————————— 1 Viswanathan Anand g IND ** 1= 0= == 1= =1 =1 7½ 2 Alexei Shirov g ESP 0= ** == =1 10 10 11 7 3 Garry Kasparov g RUS 1= == ** == == == == 6½ 4 Vladimir Kramnik g RUS == =0 == ** =1 == 1= 6½ 5 Peter Svidler g RUS 0= 01 == =0 ** 10 =1 5½ 6 Vassily Ivanchuk g UKR =0 01 == == 01 ** 0= 5 7 Veselin Topalov g BUL =0 00 == 0= =0 1= ** 4
Here are some interesting games from each round.
Round 1 – Shirov 0-1 Anand, rest drawn
Shirov – Anand, 0-1
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| A rare concentration of heavy pieces around a pawn! |
Shirov – Anand, 0-1
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| Final winning position |
I consider this a model game where the two Rooks nicely outplay the White Queen.
Round 2 – All games decisive. Anand 1-0 Svidler. Ivanchuk blunders!
Ivanchuk – Shirov, 0-1
Position after Ivanchuk’s 30.Rf3??
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| Black to play and win (solution at the bottom) |
Round 3 – Kasparov defeats Anand, Ivanchuk blunders again!
Svidler – Ivanchuk, 1-0
Position after Ivanchuk’s 47…Nb7
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| White to play and win |
Round 4, 5 – All games drawn
Round 6 – Shirov on fire, rest drawn
Shirov – Svidler, 1-0
Position after Black’s 25…g6
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| White to play and win |
Round 7 – Topalov wins his first, Ivanchuk loses his 3rd
Ivanchuk – Topalov, 0-1
Position after Black’s 51…Kg5
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| Ivanchuk chose the fastest way to lose and played 52. Rxh4 and resigned immediately |
Round 8 – All drawn
Round 9 – Ivanchuk defeats Shirov, rest drawn.
Shirov – Ivanchuk, 0-1
A position that could have been!
Round 10
Topalov – Shirov, 0-1
How did Shirov choose to end the game?
How did Shirov choose to end the game?
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| Black to play and win |
Ivanchuk – Svidler, 1-0
Can White stop the Black pawn on a3?
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| White to play and win |
Round 11 – Svidler 1-0 Topalov, Shirov 1-0 Kramnik
Round 12 – Kramnik 1-0 Svidler, Anand’s master piece!
Ivanchuk – Anand, 0-1
Can you find a win for Black?
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| Black to play and win |
Round 13 (last round) – Svidler 1-0 Shirov, Anand 1-0 Topalov
Anand – Topalov, 1-0
Position after Black’s 27…c5
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| After Anand’s Nb6+, Topalov gave up his Queen and went on to lose 50 moves later |
And thus Anand edged out Shirov to win Linares 1998!
Tid bits
- Mighty Kasparov (2825) could only win one game and drew the rest of them to remain undefeated!
- Shirov (placed 2nd) won the most games (five)
Solutions
Ivanchuk – Shirov
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| 30… Rxe4 0-1 |
Svidler – Ivanchuk
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| 48. Qxe5 dxe5 49. Rxd7 1-0 |
Shirov – Svidler
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| 26. Bd7 Rd8 27. Be6 Re8 28. Qg5 1-0 |
Topalov – Shirov
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| 47… Bh3! 48. gxh3 Kf5 49. Kf2 Ke4 50. Bxf6 d4 51. Be7 Kd3 52. Bc5 Kc4 53. Be7 Kb3 0-1 |
Ivanchuk – Svidler
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| 47. Bc8 Kf7 48. h6 a2 49. Bxe6+ Kxe6 50. h7 a1=Q 51. h8=Q and White went on to win in few more moves 1-0 |
Ivanchuk – Anand
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| 21… Bxd5 22. exd5 Rxc2!! 23. Kxc2 Qxa2 24. f4 Rc8+ 25. Kd2 Bxf4+ 26. Ke2 Qxb2+ 27. Kf3 Rc1 0-1 |