Chessville News - Ciudad de Leon 2006 - Second Semi-Final - Reported by GM Zenón Franco Ocampos, Press Chief

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Ciudad de Leon 2006, Second Semi-Final

Topalov defeated Vallejo
2 ½ - 1 ½

Reported by
GM Zenón Franco Ocampos, Press Chief

The Ambassador of Bulgaria to Spain, Mr. Vassily Takev, who is very fond of chess, made the first move of this second semi-final...

...his countryman, World Champion Topalov, reached the final after defeating the Spaniard, Francisco Vallejo Pons, 2 ½ - 1 ½ .

Download all four games here, in a 6 kb zipped pgn file.

Coming Soon: Click on each game below to read GM Franco Ocampos' annotations:

Topalov,V (2804) - Vallejo,P (2666) XIX Magistral Ciudad de León (1.1), 10.06.2006	Vallejo,P (2666) - Topalov,V (2804) XIX Magistral Ciudad de León (2.1), 11.06.2006

Topalov,V (2804) - Vallejo,P (2666) XIX Magistral Ciudad de León (3.1), 12.06.2006	Vallejo,P (2666) - Topalov,V (2804) XIX Magistral Ciudad de León (4.1), 13.06.2006

Topalov won the first game, in which Vallejo got a decent position, but after some inaccuracies on his part, Topalov won convincingly.

In the press conference both players agreed that the second game was nearly decisive for the outcome of the match. Vallejo was a pawn up with a better position, but an extremely weak move (23.b4), to which Vallejo adds 2 question marks, changed completely the situation. The position was still unclear but Vallejo couldn’t readjust to the new situation, played too aggressively, and was defeated again. With a lead of 2 – 0 in favour of Topalov, the winner of the match was almost certain.

In the third game Topalov obtained a better position, but his main goal was to force a draw in order to win the match. That is what effectively occurred, and Topalov reached the final before the stipulated 4 games. As happened other times, the premature winner loses the final game; Vallejo outplayed Topalov to win the fourth game.

Tomorrow the final of the 19th Magistral Ciudad de León, will be the best possible, World Champion and number 1 Topalov, versus number 2, and former World Champion, Vishy Anand. The Mayor of the city of León, Mario Amilivia, will make the first move. Anand will play with the White pieces in the first game.

The official website is www.advancedchessleon.com.