Dortmund R4 – Bacrot scores against Sutovsky

Round four report

Veselin Topalov attacked vigorously, Peter Heine Nielsen defended tenaciously

Topalov vs Nielsen saw the top seed from Bulgaria on the attack with the white pieces, but his Danish opponent defended well and all efforts were in vein. The game ended in a draw at move 34.

Arkadij Naiditsch (right) ready to stand up to Michael Adams

Adams vs Naiditsch was a similar story, with the 100 point higher rated "Mickey" trying hard to pick up a point but failing to do so in face of a tenacious defence put up by the young German talent.

Start of the mini-battle between Leko and Kramnik

Leko,P (2763) - Kramnik,V (2744) [B48]
It Dortmund GER (4), 11.07.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bd3 Qc7 8.0-0 b5 9.Nxc6 Qxc6 10.a3 Bb7 11.Qf3 Bd6 12.Bf4 0-0 13.Rfe1 Bxf4 14.Qxf4 d6 15.Re3 Nd7 16.Qh4 Ne5. Nothing really new or dangerous in this Taimanov, in which Black has deviated from theory at move 12.

Here a little trick: 17.Nd5 Ng6 [because if 17...exd5?? 18.exd5 threatens mate on h7 and wins the black queen] 18.Ne7+ Nxe7 19.Qxe7 Rae8 20.Qg5 Qc5 21.Qxc5 dxc5 22.a4 Ra8 23.f3 Bc6 24.axb5 axb5 25.Ree1 ½-½

Van Wely,L (2655) - Svidler,P (2738) [D88]
It Dortmund GER (4), 11.07.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 cxd4 12.cxd4 b6 13.Qd2 Bb7 14.Rad1 Rc8 15.d5 Nc4 16.Bxc4 Rxc4 17.Bd4 Qd6 18.Bxg7 Kxg7 19.Nd4 Qb4 20.Qe3 Rfc8 21.h4 Kg8 22.h5 Qc3 23.Rd3 Qb2 24.h6 Rc3 25.Nc6 Rxd3 26.Qxd3 Kf8 27.a4 Bxc6 28.dxc6 Qf6 29.Rc1 Qd6 30.Qc3 e5 31.c7 Ke7 32.g3 a6 33.Kg2 b5 34.axb5 axb5 35.Qa5 g5 36.Qa7 Kd7 37.Qa1 Ke7 38.Qa7 Kd7 39.Qb7 Rxc7 40.Qxb5+ Ke7 41.Ra1 Qc5 42.Qb8 Qc6 43.Re1 g4 44.Qh8 Qf6 45.Qxh7 Qf3+ 46.Kg1 Rc2 47.Rf1

Van Wely has been pressing for most of the game, and the spectators were expecting a victory. But the world's number seven player, Peter Svidler, can not be counted out so easily. Look and learn: 47...Rxf2! This rook sacrifice forces a draw! 48.Rxf2 Qxg3+ 49.Kf1 Qd3+ 50.Re2 Qd1+ 51.Kf2 g3+ (or in fact 51...Qd4+ with a perpetual) 52.Kxg3 ½-½

Sutovsky vs Bacrot resulted in an unexpected win for the thus far luckless French GM. Etienne Bacrot, once the youngest GM in the world, today at 22 the world's number nine player, was only able to collect a single draw from the first three rounds. But today he struck hard with the black pieces, against Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky, who had demolished Vladimir Kramnik in round two.

After the game Etienne came to our TV ChessBase studio and showed a worldwide audience how he had done it. The host of the show was Oliver Reeh. For those of you who did not catch the transmission live on Playchess.com we have a video stream plus Bacrot's postgame analysis.

You can replay the video and follow the analysis on the JavaScript board. Naturally on the Playchess server this is synchronised, and the pieces move automatically as the GM moves them.

• Click here to watch the video
• Click here to replay van Wely's analysis

Remember that our regular TV ChessBase live broadcasts will be conducted every evening at around 19:30h Central European Time from Monday until the end of the tournament.

Standings

When we look at the table we see something very unusual. In the lead, sharing 2.5/4, are the three lowest-ranked players in the tournament. Top seed Topalov is sharing last place with Sutovsky and Bacrot, while the middle of the field, at 50%, is taken up by four players which include the classical chess world champion and his challenger (Kramnik and Leko). It is too early to draw conclusions, but at least we can say that the "rabbits" are giving the world's top GMs a run for their money.

Full Schedule and Results

Links

• Official web site
• All ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2004
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003