10th March, 2003

DON Luis Rentero, the former "godfather" of Linares, once campaigned
vociferously against drawn games (particularly those of the short,
grandmaster variety), even going as far as fining players for a lack of
fighting spirit at his prestigious tournament, hailed as the "Wimbledon
of Chess".

This wasn't the only ploy the cunning old fox would use to "persuade"
players to fight hard at Linares. He wasn't averse to bribing them by
showing an envelope stuffed with money in his inside jacket pocket, and
telling them that it would belong to them at the end of the day - but
only if they fought hard and made sure the game lasted more than 40
moves!

Rounds 9 through 11 at Linares could well have done with some of
Rentero's legendary powers of persuasion - three rounds, nine games and
remarkably nine draws (most of which being boring). Thankfully the draw
impasse at Linares was finally broken by round twelve, as the players
suddenly woke up to the fact that the tournament was nearing its
conclusion.

Indian ace Vishy Anand joined the leaders after easily beating Teimour
Radjabov to inflict yet another defeat on the teenager from Baku, as he
struggles for survival at the foot of the table in his first Linares.
However, the shock of the round was the surprise defeat of leader Peter
Leko, who lost out in a tactical struggle to local Spanish hero
Francisco Vallejo Pons.

In round 13, Leko quickly recovered any lost ground from the previous
round by squeezing Anand off the board to overtake him and once again
join Vladimir Kramnik at the top; both players on a +2 score of 6.5/11
going into the final round. And what better pairing could we have for
the final round, as the leaders all face each other: Kramnik vs Leko and
Anand vs Kasparov.

Standings: 1-2 V Kramnik (Russia), P Leko (Hungary) +2 (6.5/11); 3-4 G
Kasparov (Russia), V Anand (India) +1 (6/11); 5 F Vallejo Pons (Spain)
-1 (5/11); 6 R Ponomariov (Ukraine) -2 (4.5/11); 7 T Radjabov
(Azerbaijan) -3 (4.5/12).

F Vallejo Pons - P Leko
Linares, (12)
English Opening
1 Nf3 c5 2 c4 Nf6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nb4 6 Bc4 Nd3+ 7 Ke2 Nf4+ 8
Kf1 Ne6 9 b4 g6 10 bxc5 Bg7 11 Bxe6 Bxe6 12 d4 Nc6 13 Be3 Bc4+ 14 Kg1
Qa5 15 Rc1 0-0-0 16 Nb1 Qa6 17 d5 f5 18 Rxc4 Qxc4 19 Nbd2 Qxa2 20 dxc6
bxc6 21 g3 Rd3 22 Kg2 fxe4 23 Ng5 Rf8 24 Ngxe4 Be5 25 Re1 h5 26 h4 Rfd8
27 Qb1 Qxb1 28 Rxb1 Bc7 29 Nc4 R8d5 30 Ra1 Kb7 31 Ra4 Rd7 32 Ng5 R3d5 33
Ne6 Rf5 34 Nd4 Rf6 35 Rb4+ Ka6 36 Rb1 Rd5 37 Nc2 Rd7 38 Nb4+ Kb5 39 Nd2
Ka4 40 Ne4 Re6 41 Nc3+ Ka5 42 Nc2 Ka6 43 Nd4 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON