Dortmund R2– Kramnik loses to Sutovsky

Results of round two

Etienne Bacrot, France's top GM and the first French player to make it to the top ten in the world, is having a dreadful tournament. In his second game with Black he was doing okay against Dutch GM Loek van Wely until at move 32 he decided to exchange queens in a position that favoured White. After that Van Wely hunted down the black king and took the whole point in this game.

Peter Svidler (left – his name is spelled with a w in German) and Peter Heine Nielsen battled it out in their game, which ended with a repetition on move 43.

England's Michael Adams played a gentlemanly 21-move draw against Peter Leko

We come to the two most interesting games of the day.

Sutovsky,E (2674) - Kramnik,V (2744) [C66]
It Dortmund GER (2), 09.07.2005

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 d6 5.0-0 g6 6.d4 Bd7 7.Re1 Bg7 8.d5 Ne7 9.Bxd7+ Nxd7 10.Be3N. A new move, uncorked by Sutovsky in this Steinitz Defence in the Ruy Lopez. 10.a4 led to a draw in Morozevich,A-Georgiev,K, Mallorca 2004. Kramnik was taken by surprise and needed 25 minutes to work out his reply: 10...f5 11.Ng5 Nf8 12.exf5 gxf5 13.f4 Qd7 14.c4 Neg6 15.Nc3 h6 16.Nf3 e4 17.Nd4 h5 18.Ncb5.

The threat is now 19.Nxf5 Qxf5 20.Nxc7+. Kramnik defends by moving his king: 18...Kf7 19.Ne6 Nxe6 20.dxe6+ Kxe6 21.Qd5+ Ke7 22.c5 [22.Rad1 was a strong alternative]. 22...c6

23.cxd6+!? Sutovsky is playing for a win and courageously decides to sacrifice a piece against the classical chess world champion. A more conservative continuation would have been 23.Qxd6+ Qxd6 24.Nxd6. After the game he said: "The piece sacrifice gave me a strong attack. Kramnik could not find a way to defend against it." 23...Kf8 24.Qb3 cxb5 25.Rac1 Qf7 [25...Qxd6? 26.Red1 Qf6 27.Rc7 b6 28.Rd6+–] 26.Qxb5 a6 27.Qb6 Kg8 28.Red1.

28...Kh7? This is the losing move. Perhaps Black could have survived after 28...Qe6. 29.Rc7 Qf8 30.Bd4 Rg8 31.Qxb7 e3 32.Rf7 Rb8 33.Qd7 Rd8 34.Qxf5 Qxf7 35.Qxf7 Rxd6 36.Kf1 Nxf4 37.Qf5+ Rg6.

After this tactical melee White has a queen and pawn for rook and knight. 38.Qxf4. Sutovsky gives up the queen and relies on two extra pawns. An alternative would be 38.Bxe3 Rf8 39.Qe4 Nxg2+ 40.Bf2 Rf4 41.Qe2, which is also winning, but messier. 38...Rf8 39.Qxf8 Bxf8 40.Bxe3 Re6 and the rest, as they say, is technique. 41.Kf2 Kg6 42.Rd5 Be7 43.Bc5 Bf6 44.b3 Be5 45.g3 h4 46.gxh4 Bxh2 47.h5+ Kh7 48.Kf3 Be5 49.Rd7+ Kh6 50.Kg4 Bg7 51.Rd6 and after four and a half hours of play 1-0.

Veselin Topalov, the joint winner of Linares (with Kasparov), the heroic winner of Sofia, started badly in Dortmund, with a first-round loss to Michael Adams yesterday. Today he struck out with a vengeance, and his victim was young German talent Arkadij Naiditsch, who didn't really have a chance in the entire game.

Topalov,V (2788) - Naiditsch,A (2612) [D39]
It Dortmund GER (2), 09.07.2005
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 dxc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5 c5 7.e5 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Qa5 10.exf6 Qxg5 11.fxg7 Qxg7 12.Qd2 0-0 13.Bxc4 a6 14.0-0 Rd8 15.Qf4 b5 16.Qc7 Qf8 17.Bd3 Rd7 18.Qf4 Bb7 19.Rae1 Qg7 20.Be4 Kh8 21.Re3 Bxe4 22.Qxe4 Rd5

The world's number two player (together with Anand) has outplayed his 20-year-old German opponent. Now he delivers the final blow: 23.Nxe6 fxe6 24.Qxe6 Rd7? [24...Rc5 would have put up token resistance] 25.Rg3 Qf8 26.Re1 Raa7 27.Qf6+ 1-0 because of the mate in three: 27...Qxf6 28.Re8+ Qf8 29.Rxf8#.´

Standings

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Links

• Official web site
• All ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
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• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003