The Linares International Chess Tournament was an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, which takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it was held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess, being one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the de facto chess tour, along with the "Tata Steel", Tal Memorial and Dortmund events. The Linares tournament began in 1978 and was held annually from 1988 to 2010. Since 2010, the tournament has not been held for financial reasons.
History
The event, sponsored by Spanish businessman Luis Rentero, was first held in 1978. At that time it was not an elite event and was won by the relatively unknown Swede ), . After the following year's event, it was held every other year until 1987 when no tournament took place, that being the year that Linares hosted the Candidates' Final, a match to determine a challenger for Kasparov'sworld title featuring Anatoly Karpov and Andrei Sokolov. The postponed 1987 event was deferred to 1988 and the tournament from that point onwards became an annual event, with the exception of 1996, when the Women's World Chess Championship was held. Rentero was a strong opponent of short draws in chess, to the point that he offered cash bonuses for playing longer games. It's said that participants in these so-called "grand master draws" were sometimes penalised with a no invitation for the next year's edition! The 1994 tournament had an average Elo rating of 2685, the highest ever at that time. The field, in eventual finishing order, consisted of Karpov, Kasparov, Shirov, Bareev, Kramnik, Lautier, Anand, Kamsky, Topalov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Illescas, Judit Polgár, and Beliavsky. Karpov won with an undefeated 11/13. Jeff Sonas considered Karpov's performance the best tournament result in history. The 1994 tournament was also noted for an incident in which Garry Kasparov "took a move back" against Judit Polgár. Kasparov's fingers briefly released a knight before he realized the move was a blunder; he then moved the knight to a different square. Polgár did not protest and the arbiter did not intervene. Kasparov went on to win the game. In 1998, the format of the tournament changed from a single round-robin tournament to a double round-robin event. Kasparov announced his retirement from chess after the 2005 tournament. From 2006 through 2008, the first half of the tournament took place in the Mexican city of Morelia. The second half took place in Linares. Consequently, the event is sometimes referred to as Morelia-Linares. In 2009 and 2010 the whole event took place in Linares. The Linares tournament of 2011 was cancelled, for reasons including general economic problems. The tournament was cancelled again in 2012, with no return since.
Only six players won the Linares Tournament multiple times: Garry Kasparov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Anatoly Karpov, and Larry Christiansen.
Full results
1970s
1978
1979
1980s
1981
Casa de la Cultura, Linares, Spain, 17-31 January 1981 Age Elo 1 2 3 45 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 01 Karpov 29 2690 * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 8 02 Christiansen 24 2515 0 * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 8 03 Larsen 45 2610 ½ ½ * 0 0 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 7 04 Ribli 29 2585 ½ ½ 1 * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 0 ½ 6½ 05 Spassky 43 2635 ½ 0 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 6 06 Kavalek 37 2550 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 6 07 Portisch 43 2650 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 1 1 5½ 08 Ljubojevic 30 2605 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 ½ 5 09 Gligoric 57 2530 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 * 1 0 1 5 10 Quinteros 33 2505 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 * 1 1 4 11 Bellón 29 2415 ½ 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 * 1 3½ 12 García 27 2520 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 * 1½ Category: XIII. Chief arbiter: IA José María González.
