The 9th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez "Ciudad de Linares" was organized under the direction of Luis Rentero Suarez. The number of players was increased from 12 to 14, and with the participation of both players from the Kasparov - Karpov World Championship Match (1990) (which ended December 31st), it was the first ever Category 17 event (average rating 2651-2675). The players were: Garry Kasparov (Elo ranked #1 in the world), Anatoly Karpov (#2), Boris Gelfand (#3), Vassily Ivanchuk (#4), Mikhail Gurevich (#6), Jaan Ehlvest (#7), Valery Salov (#9), Alexander Beliavsky (#10), Gata Kamsky (#13), Viswanathan Anand (#14), Jan Timman (#16), Jonathan Speelman (#25), Artur Yusupov (#31), and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (#40). Of the top 10 players in the world, only Evgeny Bareev (#5) and Leonid Yudasin (#8) were missing. Fourteen players had signed up for the event in October, 1990. Two of them, Nigel Short (#15) and Miguel Illescas (#98), were replaced by Gurevich and Speelman. According to Leontxo García, Illescas was again "excluded" by Rentero in order to reach Category 17. Salov had played in Hoogovens (1991) in January. Karpov, Gurevich, Ehlvest and Kamsky had played in Reggio Emilia A1 (1991), and Beliavsky and Ljubojevic in Reggio Emilia A2 (1991), both in January. Six of the players (Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Anand, Timman, Speelman and Yusupov) came from the Candidates preliminary matches that ended in early February.

At the opening ceremony, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes attended the draw for the Candidates quarterfinal matches that would take place in August. The next day, at 5 am in the morning, the newly married Ivanchuk arrived at Linares. He showed no symptoms of fatigue. The players stayed in Rentero's Hotel Anibal, where the games were played. Kasparov, who used to take a nap between 1 pm and 2:30 pm, had his room next to Karpov, who enjoyed listening to the hotel's piped in music. The world champion protested, and the hotel management cut out the piped music to all customers. The players and Rentero had agreed last year on a generous schedule with a rest day after every two rounds. The press were excited, and compared the event with San Sebastian (1911) and Barcelona (1929). According to Dragoslav Andric in Tidskrift för Schack, the cost of the event was $200,000. The rounds started at 3 pm. Unlike the previous year, there were now electronic chess boards which recorded the moves. The arbiter Carlos Falcon Martin was assisted by Juan Vargas and Francisco Mena.

Ivanchuk finished clear first with an impressive 9.5/13. He played the game of his young life when he beat Kasparov in Round 1. Then in Round 5 he beat Karpov. These were his first wins against the two 'K's'. He gained 22 Elo points on the tournament and climbed to 2nd place on the July 1991 rating list, ahead of Karpov but 35 points behind Kasparov. Karpov stated that Ivanchuk would become the world champion if his explosive nerves allowed it. For the first time since he became champion, Kasparov did not win a tournament he played in. He recovered after the loss to Ivanchuk and took 2nd place. Beliavsky took 3rd, and could have done even better had he not lost to Salov in Round 11 despite being a rook up. For the English fans Raymond Keene reported that it was "a tremendous result for Speelman in what has been billed as the strongest chess tournament ever organised. So far (after Round 10, ed.) it is undoubtedly Speelman's best ever tournament performance. He lost to Yusupov in the first round, but since then he has beaten Kamsky, Karpov and Ehlvest. His win against Karpov is one of the very few British wins against a player who is virtually invincible."

Karpov had one of his worst-ever tournaments, and claimed he was tired the whole time. This wasn't surprising, as he had just competed in the WCC match in December and the Reggio Emilia tournament (which he won) in January. On the 16-year-old debutant Kamsky, it was reported that he probably was unable to concentrate. He did manage to beat Ljubojevic and Ehlvest. Rentero was happy with the high number of decisive games (58%). He awarded a special prize to Ivanchuk vs Kasparov, 1991 as the most beautiful game.

Hotel Anibal, Linares, Spain, 23 February - 14 March 1991

              Age Elo   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
 1 Ivanchuk    21 2695  * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1  9½
 2 Kasparov    27 2800  0 * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1  9
 3 Beliavsky   37 2640  ½ 0 * 1 ½ 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1  8
 4 Yusupov     31 2605  ½ ½ 0 * 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1  7½
 5 Speelman    34 2610  ½ ½ ½ 0 * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1  7½
 6 Salov       26 2645  ½ ½ 1 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 1  7
 7 Timman      39 2630  ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½  6½      
 8 Karpov      39 2725  0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ * 0 0 ½ 1 1 1  6½
 9 Ljubojevic  50 2590  ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 * ½ 0 0 1 0  6
10 Anand       21 2635  0 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 ½ * 0 0 ½ 1  6
11 Gurevich    22 2650  0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 * 1 ½ 1  6
12 Gelfand     22 2700  0 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 1 0 * 0 1  5½
13 Ehlvest     28 2650  ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 1 * 0  3½
14 Kamsky      16 2640  0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 0 1 *  2½

Leontxo García wrote in El Pais about the winner that no player was as appreciated by his colleagues as the 21-year-old Ukrainian, whose talent was comparable to that of the great champions. But he did not behave like them, he was the personification of innocence. The children liked him much better than Kasparov. He was able to sign autographs for 20 minutes after a 6-hour game. When asked about who he dedicated his win to, he said, "my wife". When it was his turn to move, he looked at the board and then at the audience, while gently picking his nose and analyzing the variants as if he had a monitor in his brain. Suddenly he turned to the normal position and made the move, to the astonishment of the spectators. "I got used to acting like this since I was little," he explained, "so that my eyes do not get too tired. I'm almost all day in front of a board because chess is my life."

A detailed description of the event is in Jaque magazine, no. 304, pp. 242-275.

Sources

FIDE rating list January 1991 (http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo199...)
Jaque 303 (1 April 1991), p. 239 (http://www.bartelski.pl/olimpbase/l...)
Leontxo García in El País, 14 March 1991 (https://elpais.com/diario/1991/03/1...)
Leontxo García in El País, 16 March 1991 (https://elpais.com/diario/1991/03/1...)
Leontxo García in El País, 25 October 1990 (https://elpais.com/diario/1990/10/2...)
Leontxo García in El País, 23 February 1991 (https://elpais.com/diario/1991/02/2...)
Leontxo García in El País, 24 February 1991 (https://elpais.com/diario/1991/02/2...)
Tidskrift för Schack, April 1991, pp. 164-172 (http://www.schack.se/tfsarkiv/histo...)
Tidskrift för Schack, March 1991, pp. 118-120 (http://www.schack.se/tfsarkiv/histo...)
Lincoln R Maiztegui Casas in Jaque 304, pp. 242-275 (http://www.bartelski.pl/olimpbase/l...)
Raymond Keene in The Spectator, 16 March 1991, p. 51 (http://archive.spectator.co.uk/arti...)
Joan Segura in El Mundo Deportivo, 23 Feb 1991, p. 55 (http://hemeroteca.mundodeportivo.co...)
Javier Cordero in Ajedrez de Ataque, 18 January 2006 (http://www.ajedrezdeataque.com/05%2...)
Joan Segura in El Mundo Deportivo, 15 March 1991, p. 54 (http://hemeroteca.mundodeportivo.co...)
Joan Segura in El Mundo Deportivo, 16 March 1991, p. 41 (http://hemeroteca.mundodeportivo.co...)
Joan Segura in El Mundo Deportivo, 22 Feb 1991, pp. 28-29 (http://hemeroteca.mundodeportivo.co...)

Previous edition: Linares (1990). Next: Linares (1992)

Original collections: Game Collection: Linares 1991 by User: suenteus po 147 and Game Collection: Linares 1991 by User: Tabanus. Round dates (from El Mundo Deportivo): February 23, 24, 26, 27, March 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14. Thanks to User: OhioChessFan for improving the English.