The annual Linares chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess. It is one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the Corus chess tournament and Dortmund chess tournament.
The event, sponsored by Spanish businessman 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 (on tie-break from the Argentine Roberto Debarnot). After the following year's event, it was held every other year until 1987 when no tournament too place: that year Linares was the site of the Candidates' Final, the match to determine who played World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov for his title, with Anatoly Karpov playing Andrei Sokolov. Since 1988 the Linares chess tournament has been held every year with the exception of 1996, when the Women's World Chess Championship was held.
In 1998, the format of the tournament changed from a single round-robin tournament to a seven player double round-robin event (meaning that each participant plays every other participant twice, once with each color).
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.
From 2006 to the present day, the first half of the tournament has taken place in the Mexican city of Morelia. The second half still takes place in Linares.
