From Thursday July 13 to Sunday July 22, 2012 the 41st edition annual Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is taking place in Dortmund, Germany. It is a ten-player round robin played. 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 nine 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.
| Player | Rating |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | 2799 |
| Karjakin, Sergey | 2779 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | 2775 |
| Leko, Peter | 2730 |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | 2726 |
| Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2700 |
| Bartel, Mateusz | 2674 |
| Fridman, Daniel | 2655 |
| Meier, Georg | 2644 |
| Gustafsson, Jan | 2629 |
| Round 1: Friday, July 13, 15:00h | ||
| Daniel Fridman |
½-½ |
Jan Gustafsson |
Peter Leko |
½-½ |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
Fabiano Caruana |
½-½ |
Arkadij Naiditsch |
Georg Meier |
1-0 |
Mateusz Bartel |
Sergey Karjakin |
½-½ |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Harald Heinze, the state commissioner, plays the traditional opening move
There is something about the Dortmund Super-GM that clearly appeals to Vladimir Kramnik. If he were able to figure out what it was, and how to reproduce the conditions in other venues, he would be nearly untouchable. This isn't an idle claim. Consider that he has won it no fewer than ten times already.
Still, be that as it may, there are more than a few hungry wolves, all of whom are ready to start their own record run if given the chance. Contrary to the last few years, in which the event brought six players for a ten-round tournament, including one top German representative, and of course the winner of the prestigious Aeroflot Open, this year the organizers changed the formula a bit to allow as many as four top German players, including Arkadij Naiditsch, Daniel Fridman, Georg Meier, and popular ChessBase author, Jan Gustafsson. Mateusz Bartel was the Aeroflot qualifier, and completing the table are top players Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Peter Leko.
The stage is set as Dortmund 2012 gets underway
The first round was fairly uneventful, despite the games being played out, and the only decisive result was Georg Meier's inhospitable reception of newcomer Mateusz Bartel, by giving him an egg as an opening round gift.
| Round 2: Saturday, July 14, 15:00h | ||
Jan Gustafsson |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
1-0 |
Fabiano Caruana |
Arkadij Naiditsch |
½-½ |
Georg Meier |
Mateusz Bartel |
0-1 |
Sergey Karjakin |
Daniel Fridman |
½-½ |
Peter Leko |
Round two was simply amazing. What was amazing was not the results, but just one game. If one were to coyly say Kramnik beat Gustafsson in a King's Indian, the immediate reaction would be: was the German brave or suicidal to play this opening against the most famous King's Indian killer of all time?
It bears remembering that Garry Kasparov himself dropped it after the non-stop traumatizing losses against Vladimir Kramnik. The once ever-popular opening was reduced to surprise value, no more, as it all but vanished from elite play for years.
Now for the reason for this interlude: Vladimir Kramnik was playing black. This wasn't some oddball transposition either. The Russian made no effort to camouflage his intention. In fact, he had to be ready for just about any line, since one of the challenges of the combative opening is that White determines which line will be played, not Black. To add to the thrill, Vlad played a strong inspired game, and won in impressive fashion.
Jan Gustafsson stares at the board in shock
For the record, Vladimir Kramnik has only two other games on record with the King's Indian. One is a win over Jeroen Piket in 1996, and the other is a loss to Vesselin Topalov in 1997.
In just the second round, Vladimir Kramnik has made it a memorable event
Mateusz Bartel was not himself in the second round, and though he certainly had his own mountain to climb, in the face of Sergey Karjakin, he made it easier on his opponent after an incomprehensible blunder.
One would love to wish him a swift recovery, but the pairings have him facing Mr. Dortmund himself (Kramnik) in round three. Four players lead after two rounds.
Photos by Georgios Souleidis
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LinksThe 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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