Dortmund R02 & R03: Adams takes the lead

by ChessBase
7/28/2013 – Adams crashes through with back to back Berlin wins against Andreikin and Caruana. Today's game took a quick and sharp turn as Black sacrificed a piece for initiative, regained that piece and was left with a winning position. The other games saw two quick draws and two interesting draws as Khenkin pulled out some cool tricks to equalize against Kramnik. GM Analysis, report and standings.

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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

Round 02 – Saturday, July 27 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
½-½
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Michael Adams 2740
1-0
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Wang Hao 2752
1-0
Daniel Fridman 2629
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Igor Khenkin 2605
½-½
Georg Meier 2610

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

Round 03 – Sunday, July 28 2013, 15:00h
Georg Meier 2610
½-½
Peter Leko 2737
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
½-½
Igor Khenkin 2605
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
½-½
Wang Hao 2752
Fabiano Caruana 2796
0-1
Michael Adams 2740

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.

[Event "41st GM"]
[Site "Dortmund GER"]
[Date "2013.07.28"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Caruana, F."]
[Black "Adams, Mi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C67"]
[WhiteElo "2796"]
[BlackElo "2740"]
[PlyCount "82"]
[EventDate "2013.07.26"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5
8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Bd7 10. Rd1 Kc8 11. g4 Ne7 12. Ng5 Be8 {Nothing new under
the sun just yet. This line has been employed a few times in top lovel chess.
McShane and Harikrishna have won on the black side of this position while
Sutovsky has been able to win for white.} 13. f4 h5 14. Kf2 $6 {We will see
later that this move has a slight problem compared to its counterpart, Kg2.} (
14. Kg2 Ng6 15. Nc3 b6 {Eventually saw White win in Volokitin-Ortega, 2011})
14... b6 15. f5 Kb7 16. Nc3 {So far it seems that White is controlling the
game quite well. The most obvious thing he has to worry about is the exchange
of pawns on the h-file and then a subsequent infiltration of the rook down
that path. However he has a nice tactic planned against this. Besides this,
what else can Black do?} hxg4 17. hxg4 Rh2+ $1 {A powerful sacrifice as we
will soon see.} 18. Kg3 Rxc2 $1 19. Nh7 {This was Caruana's idea. The bishop
on f8 is surprisingly trapped, but the opening of the position and the lack of
White's development will soon also be showing.} c5 20. Nxf8 Bc6 {You can
categorize Adam's sacrifice as an 'intuitive sacrifice'. It is impossible to
calculate all of the possible variations. Here White can play 21.Nd7, Nh7, Bg5,
amon many others. But he relies on his positional understanding and his
activity to at least be ok.} 21. f6 $2 (21. Bg5 $1 {Was probably the best to
retain equality. White needs his develpoment.} Rg2+ 22. Kf4 Rf2+ $11 23. Ke3 $6
Rf3+ 24. Ke2 Nxf5 25. gxf5 Rxf5 {Black's three pawns are more valuables than
White's knight that is stuck on the rim.}) 21... Rg2+ $1 22. Kf4 gxf6 23. exf6
Rf2+ $1 {With the capture of the f6 pawn and White's lack of development Black
has a winning edge.} 24. Ke3 (24. Kg5 $2 Rxf8 25. fxe7 Rg8+ 26. Kh4 Rg2 {
Would've hastened his demise as the mating net is unstoppable.}) 24... Rxf6 25.
Nh7 Rf3+ 26. Kd2 Rd8+ 27. Kc2 {White seems to be almost out of the dangerous
waters... and yet...} Rxc3+ $1 {A pretty combination.} 28. bxc3 Ba4+ 29. Kb2
Rxd1 {Black's up two pawns and White simply has nothing to show for it. The
rest of the game is technique.} 30. Bg5 Nc6 31. Rxd1 Bxd1 32. Bf4 Bxg4 33. Nf6
Bf3 34. Ne8 Na5 35. Nxc7 Bc6 36. Kc2 Kc8 37. Kd3 Kd7 38. Kc2 Nc4 39. Na6 Bb7
40. Nb8+ Kc8 41. Kd3 b5 {The knight on b8, which has been trapped the entire
game at different squares, will soon perish and with it the game is over. A
wonderful display by Adams.} 0-1

 

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Standings

Dortmund 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

Round 01 – Friday, July 26 2013, 15:00h
Igor Khenkin 2605
½-½
Peter Leko 2737
Georg Meier 2610
1-0
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
1-0
Wang Hao 2752
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Michael Adams 2740
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Round 02 – Saturday, July 27 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
½-½
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Michael Adams 2740
1-0
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Wang Hao 2752
1-0
Daniel Fridman 2629
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Igor Khenkin 2605
½-½
Georg Meier 2610
Round 03 – Sunday, July 28 2013, 15:00h
Georg Meier 2610
½-½
Peter Leko 2737
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
½-½
Igor Khenkin 2605
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
½-½
Wang Hao 2752
Fabiano Caruana 2796
0-1
Michael Adams 2740
Round 04 – Monday, July 29 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
-
Michael Adams 2740
Wang Hao 2752
-
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
-
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Igor Khenkin 2605
-
Daniel Fridman 2629
Georg Meier 2610
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Round 05 – Tuesday, July 30 2013, 15:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
-
Peter Leko 2737
Daniel Fridman 2629
-
Georg Meier 2610
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
-
Igor Khenkin 2605
Fabiano Caruana 2796
-
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Michael Adams 2740
-
Wang Hao 2752
Round 06 – Thursday, August 1 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
-
Wang Hao 2752
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
-
Michael Adams 2740
Igor Khenkin 2605
-
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Georg Meier 2610
-
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
-
Daniel Fridman 2629
Round 07 – Friday, August 2 2013, 15:00h
Daniel Fridman 2629
-
Peter Leko 2737
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Fabiano Caruana 2796
-
Georg Meier 2610
Michael Adams 2740
-
Igor Khenkin 2605
Wang Hao 2752
-
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Round 08 – Saturday, August 3 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
-
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Igor Khenkin 2605
-
Wang Hao 2752
Georg Meier 2610
-
Michael Adams 2740
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
-
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Daniel Fridman 2629
-
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Round 09 – Sunday, August 4 2013, 13:00h
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
-
Peter Leko 2737
Fabiano Caruana 2796
-
Daniel Fridman 2629
Michael Adams 2740
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Wang Hao 2752
-
Georg Meier 2610
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
-
Igor Khenkin 2605

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