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Alexander Morozevich reached second place in Linares
The winner of the super tournament of eight grandmasters “Morelia-Linares” was Viswanathan Anand. After winning the third round of the Spanish part of the competition over his main competitor Magnus Carlsen, he could only control the status of the leader and, without taking too much risk, finish the tournament in draws.As for Carlsen, despite his young age, he showed that he can take a punch. After all, a chess player with only a very stable psyche can digest the 0:2 defeat that occurred in the micro-match with Anand. However, the Norwegian immediately got back at Vasily Ivanchuk with surprising ease, bringing his head-to-head score to 2:0. Carlsen also demonstrated amazing optimism in the next match against Veselin Topalov, who was eager to make up for his strange defeat in the first round with white (remember, he unexpectedly surrendered in an easily defendable position). But this time, in response to Veselin’s intention to engage in protracted positional play, Magnus, in a rather calm situation, showed his teeth, rushing to attack the king, which prompted the Bulgarian to urgently force a draw by repeating moves. And only in the last round “The Kid” could do nothing against the powerful strategy of Peter Leko, who longed to win at least one game. Nevertheless, even the defeat did not deprive him of sharing second place. With whom - the duel was decided by Svidler - Morozevich.
In a favorable situation, for example, in the event of Anand's defeat, the St. Petersburg grandmaster still had a chance of even sharing first place. However, he failed to catch on to the second one. After Morozevich easily solved the opening problems with Black in the signature French Defense, Svidler was unexpectedly tempted to sacrifice an exchange for the sake of an attack on the king, which turned out to be illusory. And if we recall that the day before Morozevich also beat Veselin Topalov (in fact, having outplayed him twice, first in the knight endgame, and then, with the appearance of queens, in the queen endgame), then Alexander once again demonstrated both his potential and unpredictability. A breakthrough from the position of a hopeless outsider in the first round with a result of “-3” to the absolute winner of the second round with a result of “+4” and sharing second place in the end - this is only possible for an extremely strong-willed chess player. As for Peter Svidler, the tendency that has emerged in recent years to maintain only a high rating - his victories in major tournaments have somehow been forgotten - does not correspond to the authority of the four-time Russian champion. More was expected from last year's winner of this tournament, Levon Aronian. However, this time he was remembered only for his masterpiece in the first round game with Anand, and with seven draws in the Spanish part of the competition he could only count on an average result. As for Ivanchuk, who was part of the leading group in the middle of the second round, the differences in his play depending on his mood are well known. After losing to Carlsen, he broke down, lost the next game to Svidler and fell back into the group of losers.
Perhaps the main sensation of the tournament was the performance of the favorites, ex-world champion Veselin Topalov, who recently shared 1st-3rd places in Wijk aan Zee, and Peter Leko, who recently won the World Rapid Chess Cup. It is known that Topalov has a penchant for uncompromising play “until the last bullet,” regardless of the color of the pieces. However, this time his efforts turned out to be unproductive: having finished the Mexican stage in the red, he played equally unsuccessfully in Linares. As a result, having shared the last place in the tournament, the leader of the world rating list noticeably lost his ambitions for a rematch with Vladimir Kramnik. This tournament did not work out at all for Peter Leko. Having lost an offensive game to Anand in the first round, he later lost to our grandmasters, and only a prestigious victory in the last round over Carlsen allowed Leko to leave the clear last place.
Final standings: Anand - 8.5 points, Carlsen and Morozevich - 7.5 each, Aronian and Svidler - 7 each, Ivanchuk - 6.5, Topalov and Leko - 6 each.