XXI Ciudad de León First Semifinal

Anand eliminated Vallejo Pons in a blitz tiebreak

First excitements at the XXI Ciudad de León chess tournament started today with a semifinal match between World Champion Viswanathan Anand and Francisco Vallejo Pons. All games will be played with 20 minutes for the whole game, with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.

After four rapid games the score was tied 2-2. Anand crushed Vallejo's Caro-Kann in the second game, but Spaniard immediately struck back by winning third game in the same opening. The other two games were drawn and the finalist was to be decided in blitz games.

Friendly greeting before the game

In the first blitz game, Anand employed Accelerated Dragon with black pieces and accepted free pawn on b2 without second thoughts. He was able to convert this into a win and take an early lead. Francisco Vallejo, somewhat surprisingly, tried to equalize with black by playing Caro-Kann and opposite castles. Both Queens stormed towards opponent's monarchs but Anand was first to create a direct mate threat. Vallejo was forced to seek for perpetual check and therefore submit the match to the World Champion.

There will be two semifinals, played on Friday and Saturday, and the two winners will play the final on Sunday the 2th. Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov are scheduled to play in the second semifinal.

The inaugural move of the tournament between Vallejo and Anand was played by Miguel Ignacio González, General Director of Sports of the Junta de Castilla y León.

World Champion accurately defending in the Berlin Ruy Lopez

Viswanathan Anand

Press conference after the match

Chief officer Zenon Franco also present

IM Sion with the players

GM Zenón Franco Ocampos

All about Leon Chess 2007

Official website

The main sponsors of the tournament are: Ayuntamiento de León, Junta de Castilla y León, Diputación de León, Universidad de León, Caja Duero, ALSA, Editorial MIC, and SP Technology.