Linares Tournament Rife with Draws!

By Lev Khariton
Look at the two positions that happened today, on March 6, 2005. These are the final positions from the games between Leko and Topalov () and Valljeho - Adams(You can find them at any chess site) Incredible! Are these positions drawish? Most unikely. But the top-notch grandmasters probably know better... What should be said is that in certain sports, say, boxing, wrestling and some others in such cases participants are disqualified for one year, two years, sometimes for life for the non-combat behavior. I allow myself to quote what I wrote here exactly one year ago commenting on Linares-2004: "The tournament in Linares this year was one of the most mystic events in recent chess history. It may be, in my view, compared only to the candidates' tournament in Curacao in 1962 when the three Soviet grandmasters (Keres, Petrosian and Geller) actually made a "draw deal" that allowed Petrosian to score the chess Olympus a year later"
Some years ago when Mr.Rentero was organizing the tournaments in Linares, he was very strict about these "grandmaster" draws. I remember that he ruled that in case of such draws grandmasters would have to pay a fine. Where is Senor Rentero now? And who would sponsor such participants next year?
To note: so far Leko has made nine draws.He has passed almost the whole tournament unscathed both by losses and ... wins!