Linex-Magic Spanish champion
Linex-Magic became Spanish champion last Saturday. The club beat Cuna de Dragones in the final that was held in Lugo (Galicia). The decisive game was Ponomariov-Svidler, because Ruslan had the honor to put a decisive 3,5-1,5 on the scoreboard.
Lugo, SpainThe only game in the decisive match that was played between to Spaniards was the first to end in a draw: Manuel P?ɬ©rez Candelario-Jos?ɬ© Carlos Ibarra, on board six. After that also the duels Harikrishna-Karjakin and Sargissian-Timofeev ended peacefully. The situation on the other three boards was better for Linex-Magic, but of course nothing was certain yet.Alexei Shirov was the first to score a full point for Linex-Magic; he defeated Dmitry Jakovenko. Soon after that Ruslan Ponomariov beat Peter Svider and thus decided the championship. Sergei Rublevsky made the victory even more convincing by beating Miguel Llanes.There was also a final for the third and fourth place: the duel Intel Tiendas UPI-Revert?ɬ© Albox Unicaja. Tiendas UPI took, also convincingly (5-1), the third spot in the final standings. The Spanish club competition is one of the world's strongest championships. Have a look at the line-up (and results) of the last day: Final
Cuna de Dragones 1?Ǭ?-4?Ǭ? Ajoblanco Linex-Magic 1 Svidler (2750) 0-1 Ponomariov (2703) 2 Jakovenko (2671) 0-1 Shirov (2720 3 Harikrishna (2674) ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Karjakin (2672) 4 Timofeev (2662) ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Sargissian (2688) 5 Llanes (2435) 0-1 Rublevsky (2688) 6 Ibarra (2451) ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? P?ɬ©rez Candelario (2496)3rd/4th placeIntel Tiendas UPI 5-1 Revert?ɬ© Albox - Unicaja 1 Ivanchuk (2741) ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Dreev (2655) 2 Vallejo Pons (2671) 1-0 Krasenkov (2647) 3 Bruzon (2648) ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Movsesian (2637) 4 Volokitin (2645) 1-0 Rustemov (2552) 5 Eljanov (2658) 1-0 Comas (2495) 6 Illescas (2620) 1-0 Del Rio (2492)Svidler-Ponomariov Lugo, 2006
Ponomariov decided to use his Winawer-French again. Svidler now started a remarkable sequence of moves that probably didn't make his team mates very happy: he sacrificed three pawns.
17.Ba3 fxe5 18.Ng5 exd4 19.f4 dxc3 20.Qe3
Who would come up with that!? In itself, the concept is brilliant because Black's position is quite hard to handle right now. Ponomariov knows the principle that when you have a big material advantage, it's no problem to give some back. He responded thematically with 20...e5! 21.Nf7 exf4 22.Qxc3 Le6 23.Nxh8 Rxh8 and he kept the advantage. At the end he decided the championship by going into a winning ending.
The decisive game. Photo: http://chessmagic.juntaextremadura.net>> replay all games from the final and the match for 3rd/4th place na
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
