Draws on all boards in
11th round at Linares
The dull draws returned in the 11th round of Linares Super Grandmasters tournament even
as top seed Garry Kasparov of Russia remained in the lead by a slender half-point margin.
Indian ace Vishwanathan Anand had his second and last bye
in this round and would certainly like to finish the last
three rounds on a positive note.
Anand plays Ivanchuk with black pieces in the 12th round.
The two had agreed to a draw in their first meeting at the ongoing tournament.
Anand is in joint fourth place along with Englishman
Michael Adams on 4.5 points from nine games. Kasparov has 5.5
points from nine games played so far and is half a point
ahead of youngest ever World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of
Ukraine.
The action on the board was devoid of much excitement as
Kasparov, quite uncharacteristically, played a dull set-up
against Vasily Ivanchuk despite having the advantage of white
pieces.
The opening was a take-off from an earlier game of the
tournament in which Kasparov defeated Spaniard Francisco Pons
Vallejo.
Ivanchuk, as it turned out, was much better prepared and
his opening surprise worked for good measure. The game was
almost shadow boxing as Ivanchuk managed a near impregnable
position after the trading the queens early in the middlegame
and kept his cool as Kasparov marginally improved with
thematic manoeuvres.
However, as the game progressed, Kasparov failed to make
a decisive headway on either flank and agreed for truceter
29 moves.
Adams came back from the jaws of defeat against Pons
Vallejo in an English opening game with black pieces.
Alexei Shirov opened with the queen pawn with white
pieces against Ponomariov and was up against a Queen's gambit
accepted that did not yield a desirable opening advantage.
The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and the
players arrived at a level queen and rook endgame where Shirov
held a negligible advantage.
The rook was also traded on the 40th move and the draw
was agreed to in 47 moves.
Yesterday's report
Anand, Kasparov share honours
