Linares Round 2

[ruymoultor]

The Standings after Two Rounds
1. LEKO, Peter +1=0-0
= KASPAROV, Garry +0=2-0
= KRAMNIK, Vladmir +0=2-0
= VALLEJO PONS, Fransisco +0=2-0
= SHIROV, Alexei +0=2-0
6. TOPALOV, Veselin +0=1-0
= RADJABOV, Teimour +0=1-1

--LEKO and TOPALOV have had byes--

Well the second round was nothing to right home about with everyone drawing. Leko is no longer alone in first, but with a game in hand he's still the man to chase. At the other end Radjabov may be finding his stride as he drew Kasparov. Everyone knows about his win last year over the Russian and maybe expected him to do it again.

In the first game Kramnik played the Ruy Lopez with the white pieces against Shirov, who replied with the Closed Chigorin. The game went 21 moves when suddenly the two agreed on a draw. Perhaps Kramnik is a little apprehensive after Wijk aan Zee, but he won't win by drawing!

Next Topalov (with White) and Vallejo Pons (Black) played down in an interesting Queen's Gambit Declined (Semi-Slav). This game went down to the wire, with little trading off, but it backfired for both when all the pieces became tied down to defending pawns, and they agreed on a draw.

Finally our game of the Round is Kasparov vs. Radjabov. Radjabov chose the Sicilian Defense and the two slugged it out, trading down to an endgame with double pawns for both sides. Both players and but a lone Rook for a piece and played it down to a draw. Here is the PGN for the game.

[[Event "21st Linares"]
[Site "Linares ESP"]
[Date "2004.02.20"]
[EventDate "2004.02.19"]
[Round "2"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[White "Kasparov"]
[Black "Radjabov"]
[ECO "B30"]
[WhiteElo "2831"]
[BlackElo "2656"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. Bc4 Be7 5. d3 Nf6 6. Nd2 d6 7. Nf1 Nd7 8. Ne3 Nb6 9. Ned5 O-O 10. O-O Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Rb8 12. a4 Be6 13. f4 exf4 14. Bxf4 Bg5 15. b3 Bxd5 16. Bxg5 Qxg5 17. Bxd5 Nb4 18. Bc4 d5 19. exd5 Nxd5 20. Qf3 Qe3+ 21. Rf2 Qxf3 22. Rxf3 Nb6 23. Bb5 a6 24. a5 axb5 25. axb6 Rfc8 26. Ra5 c4 27. Rxb5 cxd3 28. c4 Rd8 29. Rd5 Rxd5 30. cxd5 Rd8 31. Rxd3 Rd6 32. Kf2 Kf8 33. Ke3 Rxb6 34. Kd4 Ke7 35. Kc5 Rh6 36. h3 Rg6 37. g4 Rg5 38. b4 h5 39. Rd4 hxg4 40. hxg4 f5 41. gxf5 Rxf5 42. b5 Rf6 1/2-1/2

Once again good luck to all in the next round!