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Levon Aronian wins Linares 2006 by ousting tournament leader Peter Leko in the last round. Aronian has fought hard in every game, and certainly deserved to win the tournament. Topalov’s brilliant second half comeback grinds to a halt just short of the mark with a short draw against Vallejo. Ivanchuk suffered from time problems throughout, even gifting Aronian a full point in a position Ivanchuk was winning. Leko started well, but was too amenable to draws. His draw against Vallejo in a very strong position looks to have cost him a tournament victory. Svidler had a great start, beating FIDE World Champion Topalov in the first round, but two losses in his favourite Grunfeld were the basis of an awful string of results. Radjabov showed glimpses of brilliance and again, another tournament fighter – he looks to be another genius from Baku.

Aronian outplays Leko to win Linares 2006. Vallejo holds Topalov to a comfortable draw. Svidler and Ivanchuk fight an intense battle, but split the point.

Leko – Aronian

Leko plays into his favoured a4 anti-Marshall system against Aronian’s Ruy Lopez. Aronian get an f5 pawn break in, and Leko goes wrong in the complications that follow which leaves Aronian with a definite advantage. Materially equal, Aronian controls all the open lines to White’s position. Aronian combines kingside and queenside pressure to force a win of one of Leko’s central pawns. In the double rook and bishop ending Aronian dominates and finishes Leko off.

Svidler – Ivanchuk

Svidler adopts Leko’s a4 anti-Marshall against Ivanchuk’s Ruy Lopez. Ivanchuk’s aggressive counterplay down the queenside looks to give Svidler the advantage, but Ivanchuk gets lots of activity for the sacrificed pawn. Ivanchuk is in time-trouble again, and Svidler initiates complications by sacrificing an exchange for the initiative. Ivanchuk manages to steer his way through the complications to reach time control with the initiative as compensation for his two pawns. Ivanchuk’s pressure in the endgame gets him a draw.

Vallejo – Topalov

Out of a Ragozin variation of the Queen’s Gambit, most of the minor pieces get whittled off, leaving Vallejo with a slight edge. Vallejo uses this edge to attack the Black king, Topalov can do nothing to ward off the perpetual check.

Bacrot – Radjabov

Bacrot repeats Aronian’s variation of the Kings Indian from the first round, but Radjabov meets it solidly. A draw agreed right out of the opening.

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A four-way tie for first place! Topalov grinds Leko in a typically aggressive endgame. Ivanchuk busts Vallejo quickly. Aronian is in vintage form, but Bacrot defends solidly for the draw. Radjabov sacrifices a piece to smash Svidler’s kingside, and mops up efficiently.

Topalov – Leko

Leko emerges from a Classical Nimzo-Indian with a slight advantage, and an easier game. This advantage disappears when he weakens his queenside pawns in an attempt to push White’s light-squared away from the Black position. In the endgame position, Topalov plays against Leko’s pawn weaknesses, and his kingside pawns prove to be the ideal weapon for obtaining the decisive advantage. In a materially equal position, Topalov’s pieces co-ordinate better than Leko’s. His passed d-pawn is the critical factor, compelling Leko to give up his knight to remove it from the board. Topalov steadily increases his advantage, and finally Leko resigns.

Ivanchuk – Vallejo

Ivanchuk plays an imaginative attack against Vallejo’s Botvinnik Semi-Slav, forcing the Black king into the open. In the storm of tactics Vallejo goes wrong, and finds himself defenceless, and so resigns.

Aronian – Bacrot

Aronian plays the Queen’s Gambit Accepted in vintage style, with a cascade of temporary sacrifices and threats, keeping Bacrot on his toes. Aronian has an aggressive edge, but Bacrot whittles it down to the minimum. Bacrot keeps his head in the balanced rook and pawns endgame to secure a draw.

Radjabov – Svidler

In a typical Queen’s Gambit Accepted isolated pawn position, Radjaboc sacrifices a piece to open up the position around Svidler’s king. This is followed by an exchange sacrifice, which is quickly recouped. This leaves Radjabov with three pawns for the sacrificed piece, and some seriously active pieces. Svidler tries to claw his way back into the game, but cannot fend off White’s superior activity, which pushes onward to a decisive finish.

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All draws in a quiet day’s play

Vallejo – Radjabov

Vallejo pulls out an obscure variation of a Sicilian. Radjabov replies by adopting a Botvinnik-type system, and gradually the game starts to resemble an Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez. This simplifies into a balances knight and pawns endgame, and predictably into a draw.

Leko – Bacrot

Leko emerges from a Petroff with a strong edge, but he steers toward rapid simplification into an equal endgame.

Topalov – Ivanchuk

Topalov’s Anti-Marshall in the Ruy Lopez gives him a slight advantage, which he nurtures into a win of a pawn. But a draw declared a few moves later in a rook and opposite bishops endgame.

Svidler – Aronian

A short draw concluded in the very early middlegame of an Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez.

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Aronian blitzed past Vallejo with sacrifices. Ivanchuk makes no headway against Leko. Topalov has a quiet day. Svidler salvages a draw against Bacrot.

Aronian – Vallejo

Aronian plays a Marshall Gambit against Vallejo’s Semi-Slav. Aronian sacrifices a knight to take advantage of Black’s lack of development, and picks up an exchange whilst pulling the Black king into the range of the White rooks. White’s energetic finish wins another piece, leaving Vallejo with no option but to resign.

Ivanchuk – Leko

After a more classical Queen’s Indian setup, Ivanchuk strongpoints the e5-square with both of his knights using almost a King’s Indian Attack method of play on the kingside. But Leko gradually improves his position and starts forcing Ivanchuk to back track. Ivanchuk consumes a large amount of time in the early middlegame, and so has to rush through the last dozen moves to time control, but manages to do so without blundering, and emerges after time control with a definite advantage. But Leko holds the position whittling it down to a drawn pawn endgame.

Radjabov – Topalov

Radjabov avoids Topalov’s main line Ruy Lopez Berlin and heads into classical waters. Radjabov gets a slight advantage, but Topalov quickly neutralises it down concluding in a short quiet draw.

Bacrot – Svidler

Svidler drops the Grunfeld and enters the Queen’s Gambit Slav. Bacrot’s centralisation gives him an early advantage. Svidler gets himself in a little trouble, and finds his queen trapped. Forced to give up his queen for a rook and bishop Svidler manages to activate his pieces for some compensation. Svidler forces a perpetual check after the first time control.

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Topalov zugzwangs Aronian in a clever ending. Svidler earns a solid draw against Leko. Bacrot has an elegant finish against Vallejo. Ivanchuk loses his way in time trouble against Radjabov.

Topalov – Aronian

In a Kasparov system of the Nimzo Indian, Aronian grabs the initiative by holding the White king in the centre, but a rapid exchange of queens puts both players into a double rook and minor piece endgame. Topalov slowly improves his position, and starts to take a slight edge, playing against Aronian’s weak c4-pawn.

The opposite coloured bishops with a single rook give Topalov attacking chances. He takes control of the kingside space with a combined advance of all his kingside pawns, whilst prenting Aronian from counter attacking down the queenside. Topalov’s bishop is the stronger of the two. With a delicate manoeuvring, Topalov eeks out a passed e-pawn whilst weakening Black’s kingside. Aronian’s rook enters the White position, but has no real targets or weaknesses to play against.

After a long manoeuvere, Topalov gets his king into the Black queenside, and captures all the queenside pawns, leaving him a pawn up. Topalov then switches to a plan of queening his extra c-pawn as well as attacking the Black king, and finishes off with a simple, but elegant zugzwang, where Aronian resigns.

Ivanchuk – Radjabov

In a Classical King’s Indian, Ivanchuk finds his position under pressure from an early stage, and Black quickly gains an edge. Ivanchuk battles back and the game is balanced on a knife edge. Ivanchuk manoeuvres better than Radjabov, but Radjabov holds the position solidly. Ivanchuk presses his advantages but blunders in time trouble, giving the initiative and a dangerous passed d-pawn to Radjabov. After a series of cuts and blows Radjabov is on top, with a material advantage. Ivanchuk resigns shortly after reaching time control.

Leko – Svidler

Leko adopts an English Attack against Svidler’s Scheveningen Sicilian. He gets the kingside pawns rapidly up the board, while Svidler is generating some counterplay on the queenside. Leko’s knight retreat on the queenside hands a slight advantage to Black, and Svidler uses that to take control of the centre with an f7-f5 pawn break. After opening the centre with a …d5 break, Svidler unleashes a short tactical sequence that resolves the game into a balanced position, at which point a draw is agreed.

Vallejo – Bacrot

Bacrot plays a Queen’s Gambit Accepted, where Vallejo temporarily sacrifices a pawn to get his knights into good positions. Vallejo gets a little too aggressive and initiates a pawn storm on the kingside, and later castles into that weakened position. Bacrot’s pieces naturally infiltrate the weakened kingside squares forcing Vallejo into a awkward rook manoeuvre that fails to hold his position together. Bacrot finishes the game elegantly by tieing up his opponent’s pieces.

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Topalov surges past Bacrot. Leko struggles to split the point against Radjabov. Ivanchuk defuses Aronian, Svidler gets a draw from an inferior position.

Radjabov – Leko

Another Queen’s Indian with …c6 and …d5, where Radjabov tries dxc5, where his desparado would net him an extra queen for the cost of a knight. Leko brushes off a number of pieces, but allows Radjabov to win a pawn. In the long endgame Leko keeps up the pressure on the extra pawn, and earns a draw.

Aronian – Ivanchuk

A more classical Queen’s Indian sees Aronian with a slender advantage. Aronian plays a series of clever moves that look threatening, but Ivanchuk defuses the situation into a balanced rook endgame.

Svidler – Vallejo

Vallejo gets a small advantage on the Black side of an open Ruy Lopez after a dubious queen advance from Svidler. Vallejo accepts a draw in a better position.

Bacrot – Topalov

Bacrot’s edge in a Queen’s Gamit Slav is whittled away by Topalov. Bacrot goes astray and allows Topalov to double rooks on the d-file. Bacrot exchanges off a pair of rooks and a queen, but the entry of Topalov’s rook into the White position gives Topalov a winning advantage. Bacrot blunders and resigns instead of dropping a piece.

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Svidler’s Grunfeld knightmare continues as he succumbs to Topalov. Leko and Aronian take draws. Bacrot gets very lucky and wins on time against Ivanchuk

Leko – Vallejo

Leko plays an English attack against Vallejo’s Sicilian Najdorf. Vallejo emerges with a slight advantage and Leko is forced to sacrifice a pawn. He sacrifices another pawn to open lines against the black king castled on the kingside. Vallejo offers a draw in a position where Leko probably has a decisive attack, and Leko agrees to split the points.

Topalov – Svidler

Topalov adopts a classical exchange variation against Svidler’s Grunfeld, and emerges with a slight advantage that quickly grows in light of an extra passed c-pawn. White dominates the queenside and pushes Svidler’s queen all the way back to the f8 square. Svidler sacrifices an exchange to get his queen back into play and remove the problematic c-pawn. Topalov regroups and targets the f7-pawn from the seventh rank and the f-file. His major pieces all aiming at the black king when Svidler resigns.

Ivanchuk – Bacrot

Bacrot emerges from a Semi-Slav with a balanced position. Ivanchuk’s insipid knight manoeuvres look striking but offer no concrete advantage. In a complicated position Ivanchuk emerges with a sizeable advantage, but fails to make it to move 40 in time, giving Bacrot a fortuitous win.

Radjabov – Aronian

Aronian’s Ragozin System against Radjabov’s Queen’s Gambit gives White an excellent centre. When Radjabov is on the verge of taking advantage on the queenside, Aronian sacrifices a pawn to switch his queen across to the kingside where White has weakened his pawn cover in an effort to stall the encroaching black knight. Aronian sacrifices a knight to remove the pawn cover around the White king and takes a perpetual check.

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Leko leads at the halfway stage, Aronian half a point behind and Ivanchuk a further half point behind. The tournament now moves to Linares, Spain, with a scheduled restart of the 3rd March 2006.

Aronian fights back from a lost position to beat Bacrot. Topalov’s pressure pushes Leko toward a draw. Radjabov finds a fascinating king walk to split the points with Svidler. Vallejo and Ivanchuk play to a short quiet draw.

Bacrot – Aronian

Bacrot gets a slight advantage out of a Kasparov variation of the Nimzo-Indian. After first occupying d6 with his queen followed by a knight White’s position is very strong, almost winning. But Aronian fights back in his typical stubborn style and slowly reduces White’s advantage. His key aspects are his active pieces and rampant centre pawns, but he is a piece for two pawns down. Aronian sacrifices another piece to kill off White’s promotion threats, leaving him with a rook and four pawns against a defence of two minor pieces and a rook. Bacrot blunders – perhaps deep in time trouble, and is forced to conceed a rook in an effort to queen his own pawn. Both sides queen at the same time, but Aronian’s threat of queening a second pawn is too much for Bacrot to handle.

Leko – Topalov

Topalov opts for the Sicilian Scheveningen against Leko’s English Attack, and adopts a Jonathan Rowson speciality (7… h5) which serves to hold back White’s aggressive kingside pawns. Leko takes the aggressive option and castles queenside. Topalov sacrifices a pawn and obtains two bishops and the initiative. This keeps Leko busy through the middle game, to the point he forces an exchange of queens, which wrecks his kingside pawn structure. A repetition of position forces a draw.

Svidler – Radjabov

Svidler ventures into a Bb5 Sicilian, presumably to bypass any Radjabov theory, as well as to avoid a theoretical dispute perhaps giving Svidler time to play himself in considering the debacle of the last two rounds. Radjabov equalises comfortably, but Svidler gets a tiny edge into the endgame. After a fascinating king walk, Radjabov secures the position into a draw.

Vallejo – Ivanchuk

Vallejo gets nothing out of a solid variation of the Petroff, and the major pieces quickly get chopped off leaving a barren balanced drawn position.

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Leko keeps his place at the top of the table, Aronian a point behind. Ivanchuk’s creativity is enough to see of Svidler. Topalov gets smashed by Vallejo. Radjabov’s classical play gives him a smooth win over Bacrot. Leko repeats his Queen’s Indian and secures a draw.

Ivanchuk – Svidler

Ivanchuk follows Aronian’s win over Svidler from the previous round in an obscure variation of the Grunfeld. But Svidler deviates into a more active position. Svidler sacrifices his b-pawn for better development, but Ivanchuk proves its no poisoned pawn. Ivanchuk returns the pawn and sacrifices an exchange to drive the Black queen away from her king. Ivanchuk prompty occupies the back rank with his rook and queen, and the black king is forced toward the centre into a mating net.

Topalov – Vallejo Pons

Topalov follows in Radjabov’s footsteps from the previous round in a Semi Slav, and tries to improve on Radjabov’s play, but finds Vallejo ready and willing for a full-blooded struggle. Vallejo’s queenside pawn push gives him a threatening passed pawn on c2. Focusing on removing the White pieces from c1, Black infitrates with his queen. Topalov embarks on risky counterplay by a piece attack on the black king which is stranded in the centre. A queen sacrifice from Vallejo forces his passed pawn through to promotion, leaving him a rook up and under some pressure to ensure his king safety. Vallejo consolidates his king safety, and the result is in the bag.

Radjabov – Bacrot

In a Slav Defence Radjabov builds up classically and prepares an e3-e4 pawn break which gives him a sizable advantage. Bacrot is forced to compromise his position to prevent White from completely dominating, but it compels Bacrot to give up a piece to remove a dangerous passed-pawn. Radjabov’s technique is sufficient to bring home the point.

Aronian – Leko

Aronian follows Leko’s previous round game against Bacrot (a Queen’s Indian), and his improvement presents no problems for Leko. Neither side makes much headway in the middlegame or endgame. Draw.

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Topalov chalks up his first win by running Ivanchuk out of moves. Aronian wins a minor piece endgame against Svidler. Leko holds comfortably against Bacrot, and Radjabov draws an exciting game against Vallejo Pons.

Ivanchuk – Topalov

Topalov equalises easily in an exchange variation of the Slav defence. He starts operations by annexing space down the queenside. Ivanchuk is playing quietly, and allows Topalov to take over the c-file. Topalov builds up his advantage toward a definite edge. Topalov switches to nailing down the kingside, Ivanchuk is already short of moves, and blunders, allowing Topalov to sacrifice a knight to gain full access to the back-rank. Ivanchuk sacrifices an exchange to get at the Black king, but resigns when it becomes clear that the Black king has a passage to safety.

Aronian – Svidler

Aronian gets a small edge out of an esoteric line of the Grunfeld after the queens get chopped off quickly. Svidler swops off his strong bishop and accepts a bad bishop. Aronian seizes some space on the kingside, and his pieces are better placed in the minor piece endgame. And Aronian converts it to a winning like coloured bishops endgame.

Bacrot – Leko

Leko equalises in a Queen’s Indian, but Bacrot gets in a central pawn advance which gives him a slight edge. Leko keeps things solid, neutralising Bacrot’s advantage, and both sides agree to a draw.

Radjabov – Vallejo Pons

Out of a Semi-Slav both sides aim for a complicated but balanced struggle. Vallejo’s kingside attack is countered by Radjabov’s central and queenside piece play. Vallejo breaks through and wins an exchange, but White’s position offers more enough compensation to keep the game balanced. In the endgame, Vallejo’s rook pair just manages to keep the balance. The game ends in a draw after Radjabov sacrifices his rook for Black’s last pawn.

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