Dortmund R5: all games drawn

The Sparkassen Chess Meeting will take place from June 23rd to July 1st, 2007, in the Dortmund Civic Theater, with eight players competing in a single round robin. The average rating is 2727, making the event a Category 20 tournament.

Current standings

Round five report

A pretty dull day in Dortmund saw all four games drawn in relatively quiet style. World champion Vladimir Kramnik retains the lead, haf a point clear, with two rounds  to go.

Leko-Kramnik saw a trendy line of the Petroff/Russian Defence, which practice has shows to give White a tiny percentage of not very much. Leko never succeeded in posing Black any serious problems.

Memories of Brissago: Peter Leko vs Vladimir Kramnik on move four of their Petroff

Leko,P (2738) - Kramnik,V (2772) [C42]
Sparkassen GM Dortmund GER (5), 29.06.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2 0-0 10.Nc3 Bf5 11.a3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Nc6 13.Re1 Re8 14.cxd5 Qxd5 15.Bf4 Rac8 16.Bd3 Qd7 17.Rb1 b6 18.d5 Bxd3 19.Qxd3 Bf6 20.c4 Ne7 21.Rbd1 Rcd8 22.h3 Ng6 23.Bg3 h6 24.Qb3 Re7 25.a4 Rde8 26.Rxe7 Nxe7 27.Re1 c6 28.Be5 cxd5 29.Bxf6 dxc4 30.Qxc4 gxf6 31.Nh4 Kf8 32.Qf4 Ng8 33.Qb4+ Re7 34.Rc1 Kg7 35.g4 Re8 36.Nf5+ Kh7 37.Qc4 Re5 38.Qb4 Ne7 ½-½.

Mamedyarov tried an early pawn sacrifice against Anand's unusual Queen's Indian line. Anand returned the material for a position where he was a little worse, on account of his split queenside pawns, but steady defence held.

Mamedyarov,S (2757) - Anand,V (2786) [E15]
Sparkassen GM Dortmund GER (5), 29.06.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 b5 6.cxb5 Bxb5 7.Bg2 d5 8.0-0 Bd6 9.Nc3 Ba6 10.Re1 0-0 11.Qc2 Nbd7 12.e4 dxe4 13.Nxe4 Bb7 14.Nfg5 Rb8

15.d5 exd5 16.Nxf6+ Nxf6 17.Bb2 Ne4 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Bxe4 Bxe4 20.Rxe4 Qd7 21.Rae1 Rfe8 22.Qc3 Bf8 23.Qe3 Rxe4 24.Qxe4 c5 25.Bc3 h6 26.h4 a6 27.Re2 Qb5 28.Re3 Rd8 29.Qg4 Qc6 30.Qe2 Qb5 31.Kh2 Qc6 32.Re4 Qb5 33.Bd2 Qc6 34.Rc4 Rd5 35.Be3 Qb5 36.Qc2 h5 37.Qe4 Qd7 38.Ra4 Qc6 39.Ra5 Rd6 40.Qxc6 Rxc6 41.Kg2 f6 42.Kf3 Kf7 43.Ra4 Be7 44.Rc4 Ke6 45.g4 hxg4+ 46.Rxg4 f5 47.Rxg7 Bxh4 48.Kf4 Kf6 49.Rg8 c4 50.Bd4+ Kf7 51.Rg7+ Kf8 52.Rh7 Be7 53.Rh3 Bb4 54.Bc3 Bc5 55.b4 Bxf2 56.Kxf5 Ke8 57.Ke5 Kd7 58.Kd5 Rd6+ 59.Kxc4 Kc6 60.Rf3 Bb6 61.a4 Rd7 62.Be5 Kb7 63.Rg3 Bc7 64.Rg7 Rxg7 65.Bxg7 Bd6 66.b5 axb5+ 67.axb5 Bc7 68.b6 Kxb6 69.Kd4 ½-½.

Carlsen-Gelfand saw White secure the bishop pair in the end, with a consequent slight edge. One of the more original queen exchanges you will ever see occurred as a result of the tactics between moves 20-25. White's bishops cancelled out his pawn minus, and the draw eventually resulted.

Carlsen,M (2693) - Gelfand,B (2733) [D11]
Sparkassen GM Dortmund GER (5), 29.06.2007
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.h3 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 e6 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.Bd3 Bb4 9.0-0 0-0 10.Bd2 dxc4 11.Bxc4 e5 12.a3 Bd6 13.Rad1 Qe7 14.Qf5 Rad8 15.dxe5 Bxe5 16.Qc2 Bc7 17.Be2 Nc5 18.Bc1 Qe5 19.g3 Qe6 20.Kg2

20...Nb3 21.Nb5 Bb8 22.Bc4 Na1 23.Bxe6 Nxc2 24.Bf5 Nxe3+ 25.Bxe3 cxb5 26.Bc5 Rfe8 27.Rxd8 Rxd8 ½-½.

Naiditsch-Alekseev was the more interesting game of the day. The German grandmaster chose the fairly rare Samisch Ninzoindian, and sacrificed queen for rook plus minor piece.

Arkadij Naiditsch vs Evgeny Alekseev, who is pondering his third move

Naiditsch,A (2654) - Alekseev,Evgeny (2679) [E29]
Sparkassen GM Dortmund GER (5), 29.06.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Nc6 7.Bd3 0-0 8.Ne2 b6 9.e4 Ne8 10.0-0 Ba6 11.f4 f6 12.e5 f5 13.Qa4 Na5 14.dxc5 bxc5 15.Be3 Qc7 16.Rfd1 d6 17.Rab1 Rf7 18.Nc1 Bb7

19.Rb5 a6 20.Rxa5 Bc6 21.exd6 Nxd6 22.Rxa6 Bxa4 23.Rxa8+ Be8 24.Be2 Rf8 25.Nd3 Ne4 26.Bf3 Nxc3 27.Rc1 Na4 28.Ne5 g5 29.Rb1 Nb6 30.Ra6 gxf4 31.Bxf4 Nxc4 32.Ng6 Qg7 33.Nxf8 Qd4+ 34.Kh1 Qxf4 35.Nxe6 Qe5 36.Ng5 Bg6 37.Ra7 Nd6 38.h4 h6 39.Nh3 c4 40.Rf1 Bf7 41.a4 c3 42.a5 c2 43.a6 Qc5 44.Ra8+ Kg7 45.Rc1 Bd5 46.Rd8 Qe3 47.Rxc2 Qe1+ 48.Kh2 Qe5+ 49.Kh1 Qe1+ 50.Kh2 ½-½.

The drawing avererage in this tournament is exactly 75%, with only five wins in 20 games, all of them with white.

Full Schedule and Results

Live coverage by Yasser Seirawan on Playchess

Playchess commentator GM Yasser Seirawan

The games of Dortmund 2007, which start at 15:00h local time (CEST), will be broadcast live on the official site and on Playchess.com server. On the latter, starting from Sunday, June 24, there will be daily live audio commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, with a minimum of three one hour lectures per round, beginning approximately thirty minutes after play has started. For a charge of ten Ducats (about one Euro) a visitor gets a twelve hour pass to listen to the live lectures.

Note that you can also purchase Ducats directly from Fritz or the Playchess client using the menu "Edit – Payments – Fill up account". This takes you to a special purchase page with your account name automatically passed on, to simplify the process.

Links

• Official web site
• All games so far in PGN
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2006
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2004
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003