Dortmund Rd9 – Kramnik wins Dortmund; Nakamura ends drought

by ChessBase
7/30/2011 – Kramnik's win of Dortmund came as no surprise, and he took no chances and drew against Giri, securing a two point lead over the field after Le drew against Ponomariov. His 7.0/9 score and 2933 performance are one of the greatest tournament victories of all time, but he still has a tenth round to try and extend it if he wishes. Nakamura ended his drought with a win over Meier. Round nine.

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From Thursday July 21 to Sunday July 31, 2010 the 39th edition annual Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is taking place in Dortmund, Germany. It is a six-player round robin, in which each player has to play two games against each of the others, one with as White and one as Black. Draw offers are not allowed – a game can only be declared a draw, by the arbiter, if there is no possible win for one side, or if a position is repeated three times. The winner of the tournament will be determined after ten rounds.

Games start at 15:00h = 3 p.m. local time (CEST, = 17:00 Moscow, 14:00 p.m. London, 9:00 a.m. New York). All games will be broadcast by the official web site's "Live Games" page and on the Playchess.com server. As in the previous year the moves of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting will be transmitted on the Internet with a delay of 15 minutes – which means that the moves stay in the playing hall for that period, before they are broadcast to the rest of the world. This is an important anti-cheating measure that has been proposed to FIDE since October 2005 and has the support of most of the top players. We commend the Dortmund organisers for taking the initiative.

Round nine

Round 9: Saturday, July 30, 15:00h
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Hikaru Nakamura 
1-0
 Georg Meier
Anish Giri 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik


Nakamura could not be blamed for lack of trying, and finally won

The winner of Wijk Aan Zee heaved a sigh of relief as he finally posted a win on the crosstable, in this case against Meier. Nakamura may have been out of shape, as was evident in his games, but no one could fault his willingness to play his games to the end, a trademark of his. While it might sometimes seem to be taken to unusual extremes, better this than a slew of quick draws.

[Event "39th GM"] [Site "Dortmund GER"] [Date "2011.07.30"] [Round "9"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Meier, Georg"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "2770"] [BlackElo "2656"] [PlyCount "67"] [EventDate "2011.07.21"] 1. g3 d5 2. Bg2 e5 3. d3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. a3 Bd6 6. Bg5 Be6 7. Nfd2 Be7 8. c4 dxc4 9. dxc4 Qd7 10. Nc3 Rd8 11. O-O h6 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. Nd5 Bg5 14. Ne4 Be7 15. Qa4 O-O 16. e3 f5 17. Nec3 Bd6 18. Rad1 Qf7 19. Qb5 e4 20. c5 Be5 21. Qxb7 Bxc3 22. Nxc3 Ne5 23. Rxd8 Rxd8 24. Nb5 Bc4 25. Ra1 Bxb5 26. Qxb5 Rd2 27. b4 Nd3 28. Rf1 h5 29. c6 g6 30. h4 Kh7 31. Qb8 a6 32. a4 Ra2 33. b5 Rxa4 34. b6 1-0


Anish Giri had a welcome draw against Vladimir Kramnik

Giri and Kramnik played a relatively short game that ended in a peaceful result. One can hardly fault either player since for Giri this was a welcome result of course, while Kramnik had a big scare the day before, and decided to lock his superb result once and for all before embarking on the last round. With it, his unassailable two point lead with 7.0/9 has to be considered one of the greatest results of his career, and well deserved.


Vladimir Kramnik locked up Dortmund with a round in advance

[Event "39th GM"] [Site "Dortmund GER"] [Date "2011.07.30"] [Round "9"] [White "Giri, Anish"] [Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E10"] [WhiteElo "2701"] [BlackElo "2781"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "2011.07.21"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Qc2 c6 9. Rd1 b6 10. Bf4 Bb7 11. Ne5 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Nd7 13. cxd5 cxd5 14. e4 dxe4 15. Bxe4 Bxe4 16. Qxe4 Nc5 17. Qf3 Qe8 18. Nc3 Na4 19. Nxa4 Qxa4 20. b3 Qa3 21. Rd7 Bc5 22. Qe2 a5 23. Rad1 a4 24. Bc1 Qb4 25. Bd2 Qa3 26. Bc1 Qb4 27. Bd2 Qa3 28. Bc1 1/2-1/2

Ponomariov and Le Quang played a good game that ended in a draw.

[Event "39th GM"] [Site "Dortmund GER"] [Date "2011.07.30"] [Round "9"] [White "Ponomariov, Ruslan"] [Black "Le, Quang Liem"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B84"] [WhiteElo "2764"] [BlackElo "2715"] [PlyCount "97"] [EventDate "2011.07.21"] 1. Nf3 c5 2. e4 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. f4 O-O 9. a4 Qc7 10. Kh1 Nc6 11. Be3 Re8 12. Bf3 Na5 13. Bf2 Nd7 14. Bg3 Bf6 15. Re1 Rb8 16. Qd3 Nc5 17. Qd1 Nd7 18. Qd3 Nc6 19. Nb3 b6 20. Rad1 Be7 21. Qc4 Nc5 22. f5 Ne5 23. Bxe5 dxe5 24. fxe6 Nxe6 25. Be2 Qb7 26. Nd5 Bg5 27. a5 b5 28. Qc3 Nf4 29. Nc5 Qc6 30. Bf3 b4 31. Nxb4 Qb5 32. Nbd3 Nxd3 33. Nxd3 Be6 34. Nc5 Qxb2 35. Qxb2 Rxb2 36. Nxe6 Rxe6 37. Rb1 Rxb1 38. Rxb1 g6 39. Be2 Bd2 40. Rb6 Bxa5 41. Rxe6 fxe6 42. Bxa6 Bc3 43. g3 Kf7 44. Kg2 g5 45. Kf3 h5 46. g4 h4 47. Ke2 Ke7 48. Kd3 Bd4 49. h3 1/2-1/2

Pictures by Georgios Souleidis

Standings after nine rounds


Schedule and results

Round 1: Thursday, July 21, 15:00h
Georg Meier 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Anish Giri 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura 
Round 2: Friday, July 22, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Ruslan Ponomariov 
1-0
 Anish Giri
Georg Meier 
0-1
 Vladimir Kramnik
Round 3: Saturday, July 23, 15:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Anish Giri 
1-0
 Georg Meier
Hikaru Nakamura 
0-1
 Ruslan Ponomariov 
Round 4: Sunday, July 24, 15:00h
Anish Giri 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Hikaru Nakamura 
0-1
 Vladimir Kramnik
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Georg Meier
Round 5: Monday, July 25, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
1-0
 Ruslan Ponomariov 
Georg Meier 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
 Anish Giri
Round 6: Wednesday, July 27, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
½-½
 Georg Meier
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Anish Giri
Round 7: Thursday, July 28, 15:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Anish Giri 
1-0
 Ruslan Ponomariov 
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
 Georg Meier
Round 8: Friday, July 29, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le  
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Georg Meier 
½-½
 Anish Giri
Ruslan Ponomariov 
1-0
 Hikaru Nakamura
Round 9: Saturday, July 30, 15:00h
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Hikaru Nakamura 
1-0
 Georg Meier
Anish Giri 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Round 10: Sunday, July 31, 13:00h
Quang Liem Le 
   Anish Giri
Vladimir Kramnik 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Georg Meier 
   Ruslan Ponomariov 

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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