Linares Round 8

Official site here….The annual Linares chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess. It is one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the Corus chess tournament and Dortmund chess tournament.
Read more about LINARES here on Wikipedia…Anand outplays Shirov in Linares chess

LINARES, February 29:   

Viswanathan Anand once again showed excellent technique to outplay Alexei Shirov in the eighth round of the Morelia-Linares chess as the second leg got underway in Linares.Anand’s fourth win in eight rounds took his tally to 5.5 points and extended his lead to a full point. Anand is now one point clear of his nearest rivals Lev Aronian and Magnus Carslen, who have 4.5 points each. Anand also benefited from the win against Shirov as Magnus Carlsen lost a seemingly winning game against Vassily Ivanchuk.In his game against Shirov, whom he beat for the FIDE World title back in 2000, Anand made the Latvian-born Spaniard pay for not being able to get adequate counter play. In Sveshnikov Sicilian, Shirov’s pawn weaknesses ultimately cost him the game. It took Anand 57 moves and some fine technique to bring in the full point.Vaselin Topalov, trying to press too hard for a win, saw the effort backfire as he lost to Aronian. The game was balanced for a long time, but Topalov overpressed and Aronian responded with a defensive exchange sacrifice. That ultimately resulted in a superior endgame for Aronian, who converted it in 65 moves.Ivanchuk squandered a winning chance against Carlsen and made a wrong choice of move on the 20th turn, which ran him into serious time trouble. Carlsen soon won the race between the opposing sides’ passed pawns and grabbed a full point.The game between Teimour Radjabov and Peter Leko was drawn, but it was as exciting as any of the decisive games.Anand finished the first leg in Morelia, Mexico with 4.5 points from seven rounds. The players had four days rest but traveled more than 24 hours and the time difference between Mexico and Spain is seven hours, resulting in considerable jet lag.  
 

Original Report can be read here ….

Read on the US-chess site HERE more about the standings after round 7! There are also games to play through of the Grandmasters participating in this tournament. More chess news…..

Aronyan resumes in Spain from fourth position Morelia/Linares resumed in Spain on Thursday (February 28), with Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronyan (with white) beating Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in the opening game.Aronyan finished the Mexican part of the super chess tournament in the fourth position (with 3.5 points in seven games) among eight grandmasters. The 2006 Morelia/Linares winner let Spain’s Alexey Shirov and Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov (4 points) outstrip him after losing to Norway’s Magnus Carlsen in the last round on Sunday. India’s Vishy Anand, the reigning world champion who is defending his last year’s tournament win, was a clear leader with 4.5 points.On Friday, February 29, Aronyan, with white pieces, was due to play Anand.The Linares part of the tournament is due to end on March 7.Meanwhile, Armenian chess-player Movses Movsisyan, representing the United States, scored 5.5 points out of 7 and took the first prize in the Winter Open held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. Forty chess-players participated in the tournament, according to http://www.armchess.am.And Armenian GM Varuzhan Hakobyan (also from the USA) scored 5.5 points out of 7 and shared the 2nd-6th places in the 3rd Open held in Morelia, Mexico. Hakobyan was behind the winner GM Ramirez (Costa Rica) with only half a point. Ninety-five chess players participated.

The “Magnicificent Eight” lined up in Spain, the players in this chess tournament.

On THIS LINK you can follow some of the results of round 10.

Peter Leko and his wife….

Vishy Anand and his wife…

Levon Aronian

More pictures/images : ….chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4450
Game…round 1……Topalov against…Aronian……