Dortmund R8: Kramnik in striking distance

by Albert Silver
8/4/2013 – Until round six Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik were leading in the Dortmund GM tournament, two points ahead of the field. In round seven Adams won and Kramnik lost, in round eight the Russian scored while Adams drew. Now Kramnik, a much acclaimed ChessBase DVD author, has it in his power to decide the tournament for himself. Meanwhile a cheating scandal rocked the Dortmund Open.

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Dortmund GM tournament

Round 07 – Friday, August 2 2013, 15:00h
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Peter Leko 2737
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Fabiano Caruana 2796
½-½
Georg Meier 2610
Michael Adams 2740
1-0
Igor Khenkin 2605
Wang Hao 2752
0-1
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710

After six rounds Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik were in the joint lead, with 5.0/7, two full points ahead of the field. In round seven Adams beat Igor Khenkin in a regular Caro-Kann, while Kramnik lost to Dmitry Andreikin in a Queen's Gambit. Wang Hao went badly wrong with a piece sacrifice and lost to Arjadij Naiditsch in 33 moves. Peter Leko drew a very promising game against Daniel Fridman.

Replay the games of round seven

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Round 08 – Saturday, August 3 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
1-0
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Igor Khenkin 2605
1-0
Wang Hao 2752
Georg Meier 2610
½-½
Michael Adams 2740
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
1-0
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727

Michael Adams, playing black, drew a Closed Catalan against Georg Meier in 39 moves. Vladimir Kramnik needed 76 moves to grind down top seed Fabiano Caruana in an Exchange Gruenfeld. This meant that the former World Champion moved into striking distance, half a point behind the leader, whom he plays with black in the final round. Peter Leko defeated Arkadij Naiditsch after the German GM blundered badly on move 30, while Igor Khenkin beat the luckless Wang Hao in a King's Indian.

Replay the games of this round

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Standings after eight rounds


Cheating in the Dortmund Open

Suspected fraud overshadowed Chess Tournament

Shock at the Sparkassen Open: the tournament director of amateur chess tournament, which takes place in the prestigious Chess Meeting in the Town Hall, has disqualified a Bundesliga player. He was the favorite – but his winning streak clearly wasn't achieved with regular means. The tournament direction in Dortmund accused Bundesliga player Jens Kotainy, who is on the verge of becoming a grandmaster, of receiving moves on his cell phone, which he carried in his trouser pocket.

"We were watching this player around the clock and noticed irregularities," said tournament director Christian Goldschmidt said on Saturday. After each move Kotainy [who was leading the Open with 7.0/7 points] put his hand into his left pocket, so regularly that it aroused suspicious. "There have been rumors about his previous achievements," Goldschmidt said. The accusation: the player was receiving the moves of a computer in a kind of Morse code. The tournament direction checked the moves against those of the well-known chess engine Houdini, and found an up to 100% match.

On Friday Kotainy was asked to submit his cell phone, which appeared to be turned off. Goldschmidt: "Nevertheless, we asked him to surrender the phone before Saturday's game." It suddenly started to vibrate in the hand of the referee. "That was enough for a disqualification." The tournament direction asked the police to secure the evidence, but were not allowed to confiscate the cell phone.

Jens Kotainy confirmed that he had the cell phone in his pocket, but stated that it was switched off. "I'm not the only one with a cell phone in the tournament," he said. "But I did not cheat." What about the mysterious vibrations? "My brother used the phone before me," said Kotainy. His brother Gregory, said Kotainy, was a trained computer programmer who writes programs for Android phones. The installed program was an anti-theft app that reports via the Internet where it currently is located. If there is no Internet connection it vibrates every ten seconds, explained brother Gregory Kotainy.

Similar to the doping scandals in cycling the reputation of an entire sport is at stake. The President of the German Chess Federation Herbert Bastian are visibly nervous, but do not want prejudge this case. Gerd Kolbe, the tournament director of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting, was clearer: "We have a significant case here, one that has rained on our birthday party." The Chess Meeting is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

"Inhumane move" was the title of a report on fraud, suspicion and paranoia in chess that appeared in the prestigious German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Thursday. He has been refused admission to a tournament in Dormund, and the Bundesliga club SF Katernberg, under pressure of other players, removed him from their team list. At the Easter Open in Deizisau he had played practically like Houdini, when his game was broadcast online. In Bundesliga matches a week later it was the same. When the broadcast was interrupted due to technical proble, Kotainys's started playing human moves. In order to make thing more difficult for cheats the Bundesliga is planning to delay the broadcast in the future.

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
½-½
Michael Adams 2740
Wang Hao 2752
1-0
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
1-0
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Igor Khenkin 2605
½-½
Daniel Fridman 2629
Georg Meier 2610
0-1
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Round 05 – Tuesday, July 30 2013, 15:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
1-0
Peter Leko 2737
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Georg Meier 2610
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
1-0
Igor Khenkin 2605
Fabiano Caruana 2796
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Michael Adams 2740
1-0
Wang Hao 2752
Round 06 – Thursday, August 1 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
½-½
Wang Hao 2752
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
0-1
Michael Adams 2740
Igor Khenkin 2605
½-½
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Georg Meier 2610
½-½
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
1-0
Daniel Fridman 2629
Round 07 – Friday, August 2 2013, 15:00h
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
Peter Leko 2737
Dmitri Andrejkin 2727
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
Fabiano Caruana 2796
½-½
Georg Meier 2610
Michael Adams 2740
1-0
Igor Khenkin 2605
Wang Hao 2752
0-1
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Round 08 – Saturday, August 3 2013, 15:00h
Peter Leko 2737
1-0
Arkadij Naiditsch 2710
Igor Khenkin 2605
1-0
Wang Hao 2752
Georg Meier 2610
½-½
Michael Adams 2740
Vladimir Kramnik 2784
1-0
Fabiano Caruana 2796
Daniel Fridman 2629
½-½
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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Born in 1975 in Tuapse on the shores of the Black Sea, Vladimir Kramnik studied at the Botvinnik-Kasparov chess school. At 16 he was included in the Russian Olympiad team and scored a sensational 8.5/9, the best result at the Olympiad. After that followed a string of great tournament results, culminating in a world championship challenge. In 2000 Kramnik played the chess legend Garry Kasparov and beat him to take the title, which he successfully defended in 2004 against Peter Leko and 2006 against FIDE champion Veselin Topalov, whom he defeated to take the unified world championship title.

On this DVD Vladimir Kramnik retraces his career from talented schoolboy to World Champion in 2006. With humour and charm he describes his first successes, what it meant to be part of the Russian Gold Medal team at the Olympiad, and how he undertook the Herculean task of beating his former mentor and teacher Garry Kasparov. Kramnik dissects his wins against Leko and Topalov, giving us a vivid impression of the super-dramatic final games of the 2006 match. His commentary is full of useful advice and provides a fascinating insight into the thought processes that govern top level play.

The DVD contains more than six hours of video with narrative and game analysis. There are also five additional segments from an exclusive video interview on the intrigues that surrounded the 2006 world championship, and on the state of the chess world in general.

Vladmir Kramnik:
MY PATH TO THE TOP

  • ChessMedia format
  • on DVD-ROM
  • Video running time: 6 hrs
  • Language: English
  • EAN 4027975004990
  • recommended retail price:
    • 39.99 € incl. VAT
    • 33.61 € without VAT (for customers outside the European Union)
    • US $45.7 (without VAT)

Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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