The Leko-Gelfand match in Miskolc

Miskolc in Hungary was again the venue for Leko's annual match against an elite opponent.
This year it was Boris Gelfand who went head-to-head against Peter Leko in an eight game rapid match from the 25th to the 29th of August.
Gelfand eventually shading it 4.5-3.5.

This is the sixth year running that Peter Leko has taken on a high profile challenger in a short match in Miskolc. In previous years Leko played the following: Adams, Karpov, Kramnik, Carlsen and Anand.

Miskolc is the third largest city in Hungary (after Budapest and Debrecen) with a population of 175,000 and is situated in the north-east corner of the country.

Eight games of rapid play over a few days saw the World Cup winner Boris Gelfand take the initiative with wins in the first and fifth games. Leko's win in game four was somewhat fortunate as it was on time.

Here is a summary of the results:

1	Boris Gelfand	2739	1-0	Peter Leko	2734	Semi-Slav Defence	86
2	Peter Leko	2734	0.5-0.5	Boris Gelfand	2739	Semi-Slav Defence	78
3	Boris Gelfand	2739	0.5-0.5	Peter Leko	2734	Semi-Slav Defence	71
4	Peter Leko	2734	1-0	Boris Gelfand	2739	Petroff Defence	76
5	Boris Gelfand	2739	1-0	Peter Leko	2734	Semi-Slav Defence	45
6	Peter Leko	2734	0.5-0.5	Boris Gelfand	2739	Semi-Slav Defence	101
7	Boris Gelfand	2739	0.5-0.5	Peter Leko	2734	Semi-Slav Defence	28
8	Peter Leko	2734	0.5-0.5	Boris Gelfand	2739	Semi-Slav Defence	38

One could say that the Semi-Slav was popular!

Peter Leko has certainly taken on some of the world's biggest names in these matches, and all of them have been fairly close, but he has now lost the last four.

Year	Leko's Opponent	Country	Rank at time (opponent's)	Rank (Leko's)	Leko's score
2005	Michael Adams	England	7	4	4/8
2006	Anatoly Karpov	Russia	40	6	4.5/8
2007	Vladimir Kramnik	Russia	3	8	3.5/8
2008	Magnus Carlsen	Norway	5	10	3/8
2009	Viswanathan Anand	India	2	9	3/8
2010	Boris Gelfand	Israel	13	16	3.5/8

In general Peter Leko has taken on similar strength opponents as can be seen above from their respective world rankings at the time of the matches.

For more information concerning the event go to the Official site