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Group 1 standings after round 3
Group 2 standings after round 3
84% of the games played in Dortmund so far have finished drawn, but don't blame Peter Svidler. The affable four-time Russian champion participated in both decisive games of the event. Yesterday it was a loss to top seed Vishy Anand. Today it was an attractive win against local hope and bottom seed Arkady Naiditsch. The win brought Svidler back into contention to qualify for the semifinals.
Chess is fun again! Peter Svidler came back from his loss against Anand
with a blazing victory.
The rest of group one, Rublevsky and Anand, simplified and drew in 22 moves. Anand played an offbeat line against the Russian's Scotch Opening and equalized rapidly.
Sergei Rublevsky vs top seed Vishy Anand
Parity reigns supreme in Group 2 after the first half of the preliminaries. Six games, six draws, but not for lack of trying on Victor Bologan's part. The defending champion has played in all three of the longest draws of the event, splitting points in 49, 68, and 45 moves. Today he pressed classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik for a good long while in a very interesting battle. The Moldavian played a temporary piece sacrifice to gain a strong position but couldn't find a way to make progress against Kramnik's customary flawless defense.
Start of the round three game Victor Bologan vs Vladimir Kramnik
The last game of the day saw Sergey Karjakin draw with black against Peter Leko two days after doing the same against Kramnik. It was a battle of current teen wonder against one of his great predecessors. Karjakin holds the "youngest ever GM" title that once belonged to the Hungarian world championship challenger. Karjakin played a known pawn sacrifice line of the Ruy Lopez and gained enough counterplay to lock up the kingside and prevent Leko from making any progress. Still, it was a sign of respect (and time trouble) that Leko allowed a repetition draw on move 30 with his extra pawn still on the board.
A view from the gallery, with Karjakin (left), Bologan and Kramnik
Naiditsch gave up a pawn in the opening and by this point was hoping his queen+bishop battery would create enough counterplay to give him a fighting chance. Svidler, who had already used the pin on the f7 pawn to employ g6 as a square for his rook, now uses the same trick with his knight. 32.Ng6! Rd7 33.f3 Giving up a tempo to permanently secure his king. 33...Qd4+ 34.Kh2 Bd5 35.Nxf8 Kxf8 36.Rc1 The back-rank threat will win another pawn. 36...Bc4 37.Bxc4 bxc4 38.Qb5 Rd8 39.Rxc4 1-0 |
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White got a dangerous attack by ignoring the attack on his g5 knight with the surprising 24.d5! Instead of trying to hang on to the material with the very Fritzy 24...cxd5 25.exd5 hxg5 26.dxe6 Rxe6 27.Rxe6 fxe6 28.Qg6! Kramnik went for an inferior but defensible position. 24...hxg5 25.dxc6 Re7 26.hxg5 The pinned knight isn't going anywhere. 26...Bb5 27.e5 Qe8 28.cxd7 Finally! But as was said about Alekhine, you have to beat Kramnik three times to win a game from him and Bologan never really came close to that third victory. |
Four games on the stage, projected on the backdrop for the audience
Sometimes it is only Black who has to think (Karjakin, Kramnik)
Chess is hard on the eyes – Vladimir Kramnik
All pictures by Andreas Schwartmann
| Group 1 | Country | Birthday | |
| Viswanathan Anand | India | 11 Dec. 1969 | |
| Peter Svidler | Russia | 17 June 76 | |
| Sergei Rublevsky | Russia | 15 Oct. 74 | |
| Arkadij Naiditsch | Germany | 25 Oct. 85 |
| Group 2 | Country | Birthday | |
| Vladimir Kramnik | Russia | 25 June 75 | |
| Peter Leko | Hungary | 08 Sep. 79 | |
| Viorel Bologan | Moldavia | 14 Dec. 71 | |
| Sergey Karjakin | Ukraine | 12 Jan. 90 |
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