Anand wins Morelia/Linares

He ended the last few rounds with a series of draws but he knew what he was doing. Anand finally won the Morelia/Linares by a full point. With Anand's last draw today against Ivanchuk, Carlsen could still end shared first but he lost to the number last on the list Leko. Morozevich, who scored -3 in Morelia, managed to achieve a magnificent +4 in Linares by defeating Svidler in the last round - the only loss of the Russian. Topalov and Aronian ended their tournament with a quick draw.

The audio of the press conference that was given by Anand right after the tournament can be downloaded here. The most is in Spanish (for those who don't speak Spanish: unfortunately Anand does, and very well!). After 9 minutes and 12 secondes you can listen to a part in English.

The tournament is the story of Anand and that of Carlsen, and a bit of Morozevich. After a long time Anand will be the world's number 1 again, on the FIDE rating list of April 1st. Carlsen proved the critics wrong who said that after his result in Wijk aan Zee he didn't belong in this tournament. He got a fantastic result on his sixteenth. Morozevich did what we've seen Topalov doing a few times: he made a terrific comeback. Peter Leko had a disappointing tournament but he had an excuse, since he hadn't played much chess lately. But... it's time for the games.



Final standings:

  1. Anand                8,5
2-3. Morozevich, Carlsen  7,5
4-5. Aronian, Svidler      7
  6. Ivanchuk             6,5
7-8. Topalov, Leko         6