11th March, 2003

ALL good things must come to an end, and for Garry Kasparov at Linares
it proved be the end (and a bitter one at that) of his remarkable
four-year winning-streak at elite tournaments as the world number one
finished behind Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik.

In a remarkable turnaround in his game (and his health due to the false
and tasteless rumours of his death in a car crash last year!), Leko, who
in the past has been dubbed one of the most boring players on the
circuit due to his many draws, again produced the best fighting chess of
the tournament to deservedly take the title on tiebreak (decided by the
fewest draws) ahead of Kramnik, who was the only unbeaten player among
the field.

In the last round, Leko expertly neutralized Kramnik's advantage in
their game to hold the draw for his first Linares title as the two
Einstein World Championship contestants finished equal first on a plus
two score of 7/12. Coupled with his victory last year at the Dortmund
Candidates, Leko now looks to be a formidable force to reckon with, and
the forthcoming world title clash between Kramnik and Leko now looks to
be an intriguing contest with two of the toughest players in the world
going head to head.

Einstein TV, who have already outlined their plans to FIDE, are reported
to be making a statement next month as to the full details of the
upcoming Kramnik-Leko match; the winner of which is set to play the
victor of the FIDE Buenos Aires showdown between Kasparov and Ponomariov
in a unification match set for November.

For world number one Kasparov, as age catches up with him as he fast
approaches 40, it was the end of a record-breaking ten consecutive elite
tournament victories stretching from Wijk aan Zee 1999 through to
Linares 2002. As expected, Kasparov fought to the bitter end in an
interesting tussle with old foe Vishy Anand, who avoided all the
complications to hold the draw. The main difference in the scores
between Kasparov, Leko and Kramnik proved to be Kasparov dropping 1.5
points to Baku teenager Teimour Radjabov, who finished at the foot of
the table at his first Linares.

According to reports on the Spanish website "Jaque"
(http://www.jaque.tv/kasparov_colera03.htm), it seems that the press
really knows how to kick a man when he's down - despite the Herculean
efforts in the past of his ten elite tournament victories.

Radjabov was controversially awarded (in a vote decided by journalists)
the tournament's 'beauty prize' for his win against Kasparov - anything
but the best game of the tournament. While the Baku teenager - with his
proud mother videotaping the proceedings - was being handed the prize,
an enraged Kasparov stormed up to the microphone and said, "I don't
believe that this was the best game of the tournament. It has been
selected only because it was the only game that I lost and I consider
this to be a public insult and humiliation."

While everyone looked on in shock, Kasparov went after a group of
journalists and worked his rage up to shouting level. "This is the worst
insult you have ever done to me in my life! It is an insult to me and to
chess! You consider yourselves chess journalists? If you think this was
the most beautiful game of Linares, you are doing a great deal of damage
to chess with your reports and articles. Radjabov was completely lost in
that game!"

Final Standings: 1-2 P Leko (Hungary), V Kramnik (Russia) +2 (7/12); 3-4
V Anand (India), G Kasparov (Russia) +1 (6.5); 5 R Ponomariov (Ukraine)
-1 (5.5); 6 F Vallejo Pons (Spain) -2 (5); 7 T Radjabov (Azerbaijan) -3
(4.5).

V Kramnik - P Leko
Linares, (14)
Sicilian Defence
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 e5 4 Bc4 d6 5 d3 Be7 6 0-0 Nf6 7 Ng5 0-0 8 f4
exf4 9 Bxf4 h6 10 Nf3 Be6 11 Nd5 Bxd5 12 exd5 Na5 13 Nh4 Nxc4 14 dxc4
Nxd5 15 Qxd5 Bxh4 16 Rad1 b6 17 Bxd6 Be7 18 Be5 Bg5 19 Bd6 Be7 20 Bf4
Bf6 21 c3 Qxd5 22 cxd5 Rad8 23 Bxh6 Bxc3 24 bxc3 gxh6 25 Rfe1 Rd7 26 c4
a6 27 a4 b5 28 axb5 axb5 29 cxb5 Rb8 30 d6 Rxb5 31 Re7 Rbb7 32 Rxd7 Rxd7
33 Kf2 Kg7 34 Kf3 Kf6 35 Rd5 draw

JOHN B HENDERSON