Dortmund R02 & R03: Adams takes the lead

The 41st Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is taking place in the Dortmund State Theatre (Schauspielhaus). It is a ten-player round robin with six international stars and four top German grandmasters. Top seed is Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, rated 2796 and ranked number three in the world, while "local boy" former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who has won this event no less than ten times (Caruana won it last year).

Round two report

Leko, Peter - Caruana, Fabiano ½-½
A tense Spanish gave Caruana equal chances as White's king ended up quite exposed due to the advanced position of his kingside pawns. Leko's initiative grew in strength but Black's queen entered the kingside just in time to deliver a perpetual.

Naiditsch, Arkadij - Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½
This line of the Spanish keeps resurging without any particular success. Kramnik draws without too many problems.

Khenkin, Igor - Meier, Georg ½-½
Khenkin's superior pawn structure was neutralized by Black's pair of bishops and consistent and effective trades. The pieces that remained were not sufficient to take advantage of the backwards and weak c6 pawn and with basic defense Meier was able to obtain his half point.

Wang Hao - Fridman, Daniel 1-0
Wang Hao played a marvelous White side of the Nc3 Petroff and showed that the space advantage gained by quickly advancing the kingside pawns translates into significant pressure even in the endgame. Black's pair of bishops lacked any sort of scope and this was especially evident in the last combination of the game were the Chinese player forced some simplifications that locked the darksquared bishop out of the game, especially away from the passed h-pawn that would have promoted into a queen.

Adams, Michael - Andrejkin, Dmitri 1-0
This Berlin cannot be called anything but a technical masterpiece by Adams. Despite having only the slightest of advantages, Adams pushed move by move until he converted the endgame. His passed pawn on the kingside was the only true advantage he had in the opposite colored bishop endgame, which coupled with his rook and almost infinite patience was sufficient to force Andrejkin to resign.

Round three report

Meier, Georg - Leko, Peter ½-½
White obtained very little from this Gruenfeld and decided to swiftly exchange pieces. The result was a position in which neither side had a real way of playing for an advantage. Leko eventually won a pawn but allowed a perpetual.

Fridman, Daniel - Naiditsch, Arkadij ½-½
A completely symmetrical game was drawn after every piece got traded off the board.

Kramnik, Vladimir - Khenkin, Igor ½-½
A superb opening trick by Khenkin allowed him to completely neutralize any initiative that Kramnik could've hoped for. The resulting double rook endgame gave neither side an advantage and the German player was able to secure a draw.

Andrejkin, Dmitrij - Wang Hao ½-½
This exchange Slav was drawn before the game even took off.

Caruana, Fabiano - Adams, Michael 0-1
The Berlin is usually a dull and slow defense in which White is trying to break Black's solid position. However this game was nothing like that! White launched a very quick kingside attack and was met with a timely break on the same flank. This allowed Black's rook to penetrate White's position and start taking pawns on the queenside.... but at the cost of a full bishop! White's knight was the one that paid the price as he was cut off from the rest of the army as soon as he did that. Black's initiative proved to be too much, he regained his piece and obtained a two pawn advantage which he converted without problems.

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Standings

Dortmund 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

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