Dortmund R6 – From tomorrow: live Internet coverage

Press release

Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2005:
Games live on the Internet

(Dortmund, 14.07.2005). The organisers of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2005 have just decided to transmit the last three rounds of this event live on the Internet. “We are doing so to reward the interest shown by chess fans all over the world for our tournament,” said event manager Gerd Kolbe.

The organisation thanks the official equipment supplier of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting, the Chessgate AG, which is able to implement the live coverage at short notice.

Starting from tomorrow, Friday July 15, 15:00h CEST, the games will be broadcast live on Chessgate. The public reception of the TV ChessBase broadcasts is also very positive. After the event the organisers will be conducting discussions with ChessBase with a view to providing this service in the coming years, and indeed to extend the range of coverage provided. The games of the current tournament will also be transmitted live on the Playchess.com server, starting from tomorrow, Friday, at 15:00h CEST.

The most import German chess event has received extensive media interest and coverage, and has at the same time experienced good spectator attendance at the tournament venue.

Official Organizers’ Homepage: www.chessgate.de/do2005/
(Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2005. Press release, July 14, 2005)

Round six report

The game of the day was definitely the draw between Arkadij Naiditsch and Vladimir Kramnik. Some way into it the experts in the press room were all convinced that Black was lost, but then some of them entered the moves into the computer and discovered that Fritz was quite comfortable in this optically dismal position. Then the mood swung, when Kramnik won an exchange and went on the attack. Now everyone was waiting for White's resignation, and indeed TV ChessBase expected a beaming Vladimir Kramnik to come in and talk us through his fine victory. But young Arkadij Naiditsch kept defending, tenaciously and with a lot of imagination. And suddenly, with one game (van Wely-Sutovsky) still being played on the stage, the audience burst into disbelieving applause: White had a perpetual and the game was drawn. Chess fever in Dortmund, where the hall was nicely filled in spite of today being a working day.

Naiditsch vs Kramnik in the foreground, Topalov vs Svidler behind

Topalov-Svidler was a big disappointment – for both players. Peter Svidler is far from happy with his performance in Dortmund 2005, having drawn all his games so far and been in fact a bit lucky to do so. Today he had another bad position against Veselin Topalov, who must have been winning but came out of the hall shaking his head with the game ended in a draw.

Michael Adams vs Peter Heine Nielsen

Michael Adams played a working game against Peter Heine Nielsen, always retaining an advantage, until in the end he won after a stunning blunder by his Danish opponent. Mickey came to TV ChessBase and analysed the game for a worldwide audience, which has the great privilege of being able to see and hear the players minutes after they have finished a game. "A new era in chess," one Russian journalist proclaimed, after following the transmission in the press room.

Van Wely vs Sutovsky, Adams vs Nielsen, Topalov vs Svidler

Loek van Wely defeated Emil Sutovsky in the longest game of the day. The Dutch GM is now alone in first place, but with four awesomely strong players ready to pounce. Loek has two black games in the last three rounds, and will have to face Kramnik and Topalov. So his task is certainly not an easy one.

Peter Leko vs Etienne Bacrot

Peter Leko tried hard against Etienne Bacrot, but no amount of effort was able to bring serious danger to the French top-ten GM. The game ended in a 41-move draw-

After his round six win Michael Adams visited TV ChessBase and ran our visitors through the moves. And, of course, through the thoughts that had gone through his head while the game was in progress. On the Playchess server this is accompanied by a synchronised chessboard, where you can see the pieces move automatically as the GM enters them them. After Adams grandmaster Dr Helmut Pfleger ran us through the games that had finished or were still in progress. Here are the video streams without the chessboard:

• Click here to watch the video Adams part one
• Click here to watch the video Adams part two
• Click here to watch the video Dr Pfleger

Remember that our regular TV ChessBase live broadcasts ("the real thing") will be conducted every evening at around 19:30h Central European Time. If an important game ends earlier the postgame session with the winner may be conducted earlier.

From tomorrow onwards, as announced in the press release above, there is going to be live move-by-move coverage on Chessgate, the official Sparkassen Chess Meeting home page, and on Playchess.com, where the live TV post-game coverage is being conducted. ChessBase bid for and got the rights for this live co-transmission, and will be doing live audio and possibly video commentary during the games. Come and enjoy.

Standings

Full Schedule and Results

Links

• Official web site
• All ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2004
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003