Anand Takes An Early Lead In Linares
Whilst Topalov and Kamsky have a rest day, the annual super-tournament in Linares kicked off today with the world champion Vishy Anand (pictured) taking an early lead with a first round victory over Teimour Radjabov.
The champ gave an superb demonstration of why Queen and Knight usually work better together than Queen and Bishop. Classy stuff!
Linares is arguably the strongest and most prestigious chess tournament in the world. Anand won the event in 2007 and 2008, so it's hard to pick someone to beat him this year, but the competition is red-hot. The full line-up is:
| Viswanathan Anand (IND) | 2791 |
| Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) | 2779 |
| Magnus Carlsen (NOR) | 2776 |
| Teimour Radjabov (AZE) | 2761 |
| Levon Aronian (ARM) | 2750 |
| Wang Yue (CHN) |
2739 |
| Alexander Grischuk (RUS) | 2733 |
| Leinier Dominguez (CUB) | 2717 |
The other games were drawn, but were not without interest, especially a lively poisoned pawn French Winawer between Dominguez and Grischuk. All the games can be found below. Games start at 16:00 CET (10:00 EST) and the official website, featuring live game relays, is here.
