This year's León tournament, the 20th edition, sees the format we've become used to with four players in a weekend KO of four-game rapid matches. On Friday the 6th it's Anand versus Ponomariov. On Saturday it's Topalov vs Kasimjanov. Those matches and the final on Sunday are games of 20 minutes with a 10-second increment. The indefatigable GM Zenón Franco Ocampos is in charge of the press and his latest release says there will be live games on the official site. It's a late start: 16:30 local time, 14:30 GMT, 10:30am EDT. This official site also has a "partidas en directo" link, if you can find it amongst the usual Spanish animation overload.
Last year Anand beat Topalov in the final, 2.5-1.5. A repeat of that final is clearly the favorite, but Kasimdzhanov is as tough as they come in rapid chess and has big wins over both Anand and Topalov to his credit. In an interview on the official site Kasimjanov calls Anand the favorite, saying that "if Anand has a bad day the rest of us will have our chances." Sounds about right. Anand has won this event six times, including the last two. In a simul against 16 of the region's strongest youngsters yesterday Kasim gave up two draws to Jaime Santos (11) and Pablo García Prieto (16).
[There's a results page with photos and games and recap, but it doesn't load in Firefox. That link is for Anand-Ponomariov. This one should be for Topalov-Kasimjanov when it starts.]
I really like Kasimdzhanov and hope he does well. I bet 100 chessbucks at 17-1 on him to win this event over at chessgames.com.
ivanchuk won odessa,but grischuk was brilliant(specially in the first day),he scored 4,5 out of 5 against the big guns(radjabov drew him with a pawn down in the last round)wins against gelfand,ivanchuk,bacrot,shirov.only kasparov was able for a performance like thatis good to see grischuk coming back.hopefully he slowed down on the poker tournaments.looking forward to see this big talent in mexico,along the other giants.
Who won the first game?
Initially the official web site had Anand playing white, but immediately after the game finished they show white was Pono, and he got the full point.
Spanish tricks as usual ;-)
I will not be surprised if actually this was Topa vs. Kasim ;-)
I got to a results page (downloaded it thanks to their incorrect php file-type server config) that says Anand won the first game with white and the second with black. The live game now should be #3 based on what time it is and it's showing Anand-Ponomariov, so at least the colors seem right. This results page should work in IE:
http://www.advancedchessleon.com/07_semifinal1.php
So what are the results? I watched Anand beat Ponomariov in the first two games and left during the third game.
Thanks.
@MIG: I always click YES to "Remember personal info?" but it never remembers my personal info. What gives?
So what are the results? I watched Anand beat Ponomariov in the first two games and left during the third game.
Thanks.
@MIG: I always click YES to "Remember personal info?" but it never remembers my personal info. What gives?
Anand: 1, 1, ½, ½ = 3
Ponomariov: 0, 0, ½, ½ = 1.
From TWIC:
[Event "XX Ciudad de Leon"]
[Site "Leon ESP"]
[Date "2007.07.06"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Anand,V"]
[Black "Ponomariov,R"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2786"]
[BlackElo "2717"]
[EventDate "2007.07.06"]
[ECO "C18"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Nc6 7. Qg4 g6 8.
h4 h6 9. Bd2 c4 10. Qg3 Bd7 11. h5 g5 12. f4 f6 13. Nh3 Qc7 14. Be2 O-O-O
15. O-O Be8 16. Rae1 Rd7 17. Qh2 f5 18. fxg5 hxg5 19. Nxg5 Nd8 20. Rf4 Rg7
21. Rh4 Nh6 22. Nh3 Qe7 23. Nf4 Qxa3 24. Rh3 Qf8 25. Rg3 Rxg3 26. Qxg3 Qe7
27. Ra1 a6 28. Be1 Rg8 29. Qh4 Qxh4 30. Bxh4 Bf7 31. Bf3 Nc6 32. Kf2 Kd7
33. Bf6 Na7 34. Ke2 Nb5 35. Kd2 Nc7 36. Rb1 Kc6 37. Be7 Ne8 38. Nh3 b5 39.
Ra1 Kb7 40. Bg5 Rh8 41. Nf4 Ng8 42. h6 Nc7 43. Rh1 Rh7 44. Bh5 Bxh5 45.
Rxh5 Kc6 46. Ng6 Ne8 47. Nf8 Rh8 48. h7 Ng7 49. Ng6 1-0
[Event "XX Ciudad de Leon"]
[Site "Leon ESP"]
[Date "2007.07.06"]
[Round "1.2"]
[White "Ponomariov,R"]
[Black "Anand,V"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2786"]
[EventDate "2007.07.06"]
[ECO "C89"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8.
c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. d3 Bf6 11. Nbd2 Nf4 12. Ne4 Nxd3 13. Nxf6+ gxf6 14.
Bh6 Nxe1 15. Qxe1 Ne7 16. Rd1 Qe8 17. Nh4 Be6 18. Qe3 Ng6 19. Bxf8 Qxf8 20.
Nxg6 hxg6 21. Bxe6 fxe6 22. Qe4 Qe8 23. g3 Rb8 24. h4 Rb6 25. Kh2 Rd6 26.
Rxd6 cxd6 27. Qb7 d5 28. Qxa6 Qd7 29. Qa3 d4 30. cxd4 exd4 31. Qd3 Kg7 32.
g4 e5 33. f3 f5 34. h5 gxh5 35. gxf5 Kf6 36. Kg3 Qxf5 37. Qxb5 Qf4+ 38. Kg2
h4 39. Qb6+ Kf5 40. Qb7 Qg3+ 41. Kf1 h3 42. Qf7+ Kg5 43. Ke2 Qg2+ 44. Kd3
Kh4 45. Qh7+ Kg3 46. Qg7+ Kf2 47. Qxe5 h2 48. Kxd4 Qg1 49. Kd3 Qd1+ 50. Kc4
0-1
[Event "XX Ciudad de Leon"]
[Site "Leon ESP"]
[Date "2007.07.06"]
[Round "1.3"]
[White "Anand,V"]
[Black "Ponomariov,R"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2786"]
[BlackElo "2717"]
[EventDate "2007.07.06"]
[ECO "C18"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Nc6 7. Qg4 g6 8.
Bd2 Bd7 9. h4 h6 10. Bd3 Qe7 11. Nh3 O-O-O 12. O-O c4 13. Be2 Be8 14. Nf4
Kb8 15. a4 Ka8 16. Bc1 f5 17. exf6 Nxf6 18. Qxe6 Qg7 19. Qh3 Bd7 20. Qg3
Bf5 21. Nh5 Qe7 22. Nxf6 Qxe2 23. f3 Rhf8 24. Bxh6 Rxf6 25. Bg5 Rff8 26.
Rf2 Qe8 27. Bxd8 Qxd8 28. Re2 a6 29. Qg5 Qd6 30. Kf2 Ka7 31. a5 Rh8 32. Qg3
Qf6 33. Qg5 Qd6 34. Qg3 Qd8 35. Qg5 Rxh4 36. Qxd8 Nxd8 37. Re5 Bxc2 38.
Rxd5 Ne6 39. Re5 Nc7 40. Rc5 Rh7 41. Rxc4 Rd7 42. Re1 b5 43. Rc6 Kb7 44.
Rb6+ Ka7 45. Rc6 Kb7 46. Rb6+ Ka7 47. Rc6 Kb7 48. Rb6+ 1/2-1/2
[Event "XX Ciudad de Leon"]
[Site "Leon ESP"]
[Date "2007.07.06"]
[Round "1.4"]
[White "Ponomariov,R"]
[Black "Anand,V"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2786"]
[EventDate "2007.07.06"]
[ECO "E05"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8.
Qxc4 b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bd2 Ra7 11. Rc1 Be4 12. Qb3 Nc6 13. e3 Qa8 14. Qd1
b4 15. a3 Rb8 16. Be1 a5 17. Nbd2 Bd5 18. Bf1 bxa3 19. bxa3 a4 20. Nc4 Na5
21. Bxa5 Bxf3 22. Qe1 Nd7 23. Rab1 Rxb1 24. Rxb1 Bxa3 25. Ra1 Bf8 26. Rxa4
Nb6 1/2-1/2
Games are now available from
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=62265&crosstable=2
Yes, the form encryption I installed to kill spam (100% successful) has nullified the "remember personal info" feature. It should be possible to restore it and have both, but I haven't worked on that yet. I was too busy chopping OUT functions to see if that would solve the internal server errors.
As for those, the ones that pop up with comment submission on occasion, apparently they aren't going to go away as long as I'm on this host (Pair.com). By the time you have as many comments as we do, it causes a big server spike any time a new one is added because of the way MT rebuilds everything. I'm on an efficient MySQL database and it's not too big, but it gets heavy access with each new comment. I streamlined the templates as much as possible to cut that down, but the rebuild still causes enough of a spike that the "reaper" bots at Pair snip the thread, producing the error. (Which leads people to go back and click "post" again and/or refresh, leading to the same comment appearing multiple times.) Other MT users have complained of this at Pair as well. So I may just move to another host as much as I like Pair for many reasons. There's no way this site generates enough traffic to warrant a dedicated server and the hundreds of dollars a month that would require, which is what Pair wants me to do to "solve" the problem.
The other option is to switch to dynamic publishing, either with MT (probably not much of an improvement, maybe worse) or to something like WordPress, which I use over at http://www.theotherrussia.org. I'm leery of those exports, imports, and ports, though.
The Leon tournament is covered live at http://www.chessdom.com
1st round: Anand - Ponomariov 3-1, link: http://tournaments.chessdom.com/leon-chess-2007/anand-ponomariov-live
yes, www.chessdom.com has nice live commentary. I have never seen live commentary on rapid games. It looks very professional.
I think it is the same IM commenting that covered Valievo with Karpov last month.
That is right, chessdom has nice coverage (no pictures though). The live link for the KasimTopa game seems to be http://tournaments.chessdom.com/leon-chess-2007/topalov-kasimdzhanov-live
Can someone give link for the live game between Topalov and Anand on the final and the time that it will start.
thanks in advance
Same old story
http://tournaments.chessdom.com/leon-chess-2007/anand-topalov-live
The Spanish site is very slow....
Same old stories: Federer won Wimbeldon, Anand won Leon
"Same old stories: Federer won Wimbeldon, Anand won Leon"
Very well put. Anand's dominance in Rapid is just as great as Federer's in tennis.
Off-topic: I'll be in Moscow for a few days next week. Does anyone know of chess-related places I can visit? I'd love to play chess in the park or something.
There are groups of men that play in Gorky PArk. Very friendly welcoming.......... Check times beforehand... There was no gambling when i was there which was a relief :-)
Anand beat Topalov impressively - great defence and great aggressive chess
@Brian
thanks. i've heard about the moscow central chess club - does such a thing still exist?
It changed it's name. It is now Botvinnik Central House of Chessplayer (14 Gogolevski Blvd, Moscow, near subway station Kropotkinskaja).
There are many other clubs there, also. Here you can find more info (in Russian):
http://www.chessmoscow.ru/index.php?topicID=5
And I am sure you will more find help if ask in the following forum:
http://www.chesspro.ru/guestnew/registred/
@Kosulin
thanks. found this article: http://context.themoscowtimes.com/index.php?aid=130569
granted it dates from 2004, but i didnt know that the funding situation was that bad. surely it has improved now.