Linares chess tournament

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The annual Linares chess tournament takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain in which it is held. Its importance is such that it is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess. It is perenially one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the Corus chess tournament (also known as Wijk aan Zee or Hoogovens Beverwijk) and Dortmund.

The event, sponsored by Luis Rentero, was first held in 1978. At that time it was not an elite event, and was won by the relatively unknown Swede Jaan Eslon. After the following year's event, it was held every other year until 1987 when there was no tournament, Linares instead being the site of the Candidates Final (the match to determine who played World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov for his title) between Anatoly Karpov and Andrei Sokolov. Since 1988 it has been held every year with the exception of 1996, when the Women's World Championship was held.

As of 2004, Linares is a seven-player, double-round-robin event (that is, each participant plays everybody else twice, once with each colour).

Luis Rentero is notorious for being a strong opponent of short draws in chess, to the point that in 1991 he offered cash bonuses for playing longer games. Linares tiebreak decisions are awarded to whichever player has had more wins.

Winners

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