In the spring of 1994 the strongest tournament assembled to that point gathered in the Andalusian mining town of Linares — and Anatoly Karpov turned it into a personal monument. The reigning FIDE champion went through the fourteen-player field unbeaten, scoring 11 out of 13 to finish two and a half points clear of Garry Kasparov and Alexei Shirov. Statistician Jeff Sonas has called it the finest tournament result in the history of chess.
The strongest field ever assembled
Linares, a town in the province of Jaén, had grown under the patronage of businessman Luis Rentero into what is often described as the Wimbledon of chess — one of the strongest annual events in the world. The 1994 edition was Category XVIII, with an average rating of around 2685, the highest of any tournament staged up to that time.
Fourteen elite grandmasters met in a single round-robin: Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov at the head, alongside Alexei Shirov, Evgeny Bareev, Joël Lautier, the rising Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Gata Kamsky, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Miguel Illescas, Judit Polgár, and Alexander Beliavsky.
Karpov's masterpiece
Karpov, 42 years old, played some of the finest chess of his life. He did not lose a single game, finished on 11/13, and left Kasparov and Shirov trailing on 8½ — a margin of two and a half points in a field this strong. Estimates of his tournament performance rating reach as high as 2985, and Jeff Sonas judged the result the best any player has ever produced in a tournament.
The best-known game was Karpov's win over the young Topalov, a positional and tactical masterpiece remembered simply as Karpov's Immortal, in which the champion gave up material to break open Black's position and finished with a series of exchanges. The archive has it among the games from the event.
Kasparov and the knight
The tournament is also remembered for a controversy in Kasparov's game against the 17-year-old Judit Polgár. As Wikipedia records it, "Kasparov's fingers briefly released a knight before he realized the move was a blunder; he then moved the knight to a different square. Polgár did not protest and the arbiter did not intervene." The incident became one of the most-debated touched-piece episodes in modern chess, though it did nothing to disturb Karpov's runaway lead.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karpov, Anatoly | 11/13 | +9 -0 =4 | games |
| =2 | Kasparov, Garry | 8½/13 | +6 -2 =5 | games |
| =2 | Shirov, Alexei | 8½/13 | +6 -2 =5 | games |
| 4 | Bareev, Evgeny | 7½/13 | +5 -3 =5 | games |
| =5 | Lautier, Joel | 7/13 | +5 -4 =4 | games |
| =5 | Kramnik, Vladimir | 7/13 | +4 -3 =6 | games |
| =7 | Topalov, Veselin | 6½/13 | +5 -5 =3 | games |
| =7 | Anand, Viswanathan | 6½/13 | +4 -4 =5 | games |
| =7 | Kamsky, Gata | 6½/13 | +3 -3 =7 | games |
| 10 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | 6/13 | +4 -5 =4 | games |
| 11 | Gelfand, Boris | 5½/13 | +1 -3 =9 | games |
| 12 | Illescas Cordoba, Miguel Angel | 4½/13 | +4 -8 =1 | games |
| 13 | Polgar, Judit | 4/13 | +2 -7 =4 | games |
| 14 | Beliavsky, Alexander G | 2/13 | +0 -9 =4 | games |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karpov, Anatoly | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Kasparov, Garry | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 3 | Shirov, Alexei | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | |
| 4 | Bareev, Evgeny | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 5 | Lautier, Joel | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | |
| 6 | Kramnik, Vladimir | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | Topalov, Veselin | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 | Anand, Viswanathan | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Kamsky, Gata | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 10 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 11 | Gelfand, Boris | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | |
| 12 | Illescas Cordoba, Miguel Angel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 13 | Polgar, Judit | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | |
| 14 | Beliavsky, Alexander G | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 |
Each cell shows the row player's recorded results against the column player. ● = same player.