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 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.
Participants
| Player |
Title |
Nat. |
Born |
Rating |
| Kramnik, Vladimir |
GM |
RUS |
1975 |
2781 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru |
GM |
USA |
1987 |
2770 |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan |
GM |
UKR |
1983 |
2764 |
| Le, Quang Liem |
GM |
VIE |
1991 |
2715 |
| Giri, Anish |
GM |
NED |
1994 |
2715 |
| Meier, Georg |
GM |
GER |
1987 |
2656 |
Round two
| Round 2: Friday, July 22, 15:00h |
Le Quang Liem |
½-½ |
Hikaru Nakamura |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
1-0 |
Anish Giri |
Georg Meier |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Quang Liem Le facing Hikaru Nakamura
[Event "39th GM"]
[Site "Dortmund GER"]
[Date "2011.07.22"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Le, Quang Liem"]
[Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E20"]
[WhiteElo "2715"]
[BlackElo "2770"]
[PlyCount "44"]
[EventDate "2011.07.21"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 c5 5. d5 O-O 6. e4 d6 7. Bd2 Re8 8. Nge2 a6
9. a4 exd5 10. cxd5 Nh5 11. g3 f5 12. Bg2 fxe4 13. Nxe4 Nf6 14. Bxb4 cxb4 15.
Qd2 Nxe4 16. fxe4 a5 17. Nd4 Na6 18. O-O Nc5 19. Qf4 Nd3 20. Qd2 Nc5 21. Qf4
Nd3 22. Qd2 Nc5 1/2-1/2
Kramnik played a very brave game and fully deserves whatever he reaped. He played Meier as Black and spent much of the time either equal or slightly worse, yet when the German's clock began to grow short of time, he gambled on a complicated position and his opponent's lack of time in what could objectively have gone quite badly for him. However, the tactics were messy to say the least and Meier did indeed go astray and fail to make the most of it, allowing Kramnik to leap to a 2.0/2 lead.
Georg Meier against Vladimir Kramnik
[Event "39th GM"]
[Site "Dortmund GER"]
[Date "2011.07.22"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Meier, Georg"]
[Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E15"]
[WhiteElo "2656"]
[BlackElo "2781"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2011.07.21"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. b3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Be7 7. Bg2 O-O 8. Nc3
d5 9. cxd5 exd5 10. O-O Re8 11. Rc1 Bb7 12. Ne5 Na6 13. Bf4 h6 14. Nb5 Bf8 15.
Bh3 c5 16. a3 Ne4 17. Rc2 g6 18. Qc1 g5 19. Be3 Bg7 20. Nf3 Qe7 21. Rd1 Rad8
22. Nxa7 Nd6 23. a4 Nb4 24. dxc5 bxc5 25. Rxc5 Na2 26. Qc2 Nb4 27. Qc1 Nc4 $1 {
It might seem strange to give this move a '!' considering that the engines
clearly declare this a blunder, but there is more to it than that. The safe
path was to simply repeat moves and accept the draw, but Kramnik decides to
exploit Meier's time trouble and takes a serious gamble in order to try and
win the game. The complications that ensue are bad enough under normal
circumstances, but in time pressure...} 28. bxc4 d4 29. Bxg5 (29. Rxd4 {was
the only move, but far from easy to find.} Rxd4 30. Nxd4 (30. Bxd4 Bxd4 31.
Nxd4 Qxc5 32. Nab5 $14) 30... Qxc5 31. Nab5 $16) 29... Qxc5 30. Bxd8 d3 31. Ne1
$2 (31. Rd2 Qxa7 32. Ne1 Rxd8 33. Nxd3 Nxd3 34. Rxd3 Rxd3 35. exd3 Qxa4 $15)
31... Rxe2 32. Qf4 Rxf2 $1 0-1
Ponomariov commented after the game, "Chess is a strange game sometimes. Yesterday I was creative and lost, today I played rather weak, but my opponent made a few mistakes and I won." To his credit he played a fine positional game, and outplayed his opponent to win it.
[Event "39th GM"]
[Site "Dortmund GER"]
[Date "2011.07.22"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Ponomariov, Ruslan"]
[Black "Giri, Anish"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D46"]
[WhiteElo "2764"]
[BlackElo "2701"]
[PlyCount "67"]
[EventDate "2011.07.21"]
1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. d4 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O
dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Bd3 Bb7 11. Rd1 b4 12. Na4 c5 13. dxc5 Rc8 14. Qe2 (14. Ng5
Bxh2+ 15. Kf1 Bc6 16. Bxh7+ Kh8 17. Rd4 Bxa4 18. Qxa4 Rxc5 19. Nf3 Kxh7 20.
Nxh2 Qc7 21. Rh4+ Kg8 22. Bd2 a5 23. Nf3 g5 24. Rh6 Kg7 25. Rh1 g4 {0-1 (48)
Hribersek,J (2365)-Marti Pericot,J (2402)/ICCF corr 2008/Corr 2011 (48)}) 14...
Nxc5 15. Nxc5 Rxc5 16. Bd2 a5 17. e4 Qb8 18. h3 Bf4 19. a3 Bxd2 20. Nxd2 Ba8
21. Qe3 Rc7 22. a4 $1 {Ponomariov: "I decided to focus on attacking a5,
figuring that the fact he only had 30 minutes left might be decisive..."} Bc6
23. Nb3 Qa7 24. Qxa7 Rxa7 25. f3 Rd8 26. Bb5 Rxd1+ (26... Bd7 {was the only
move to try and resist.}) 27. Rxd1 Bxb5 28. axb5 Kf8 29. Nc5 Ra8 (29... Rc7 30.
b6 Rxc5 31. b7 Rb5 32. Rd8+ Ke7 33. b8=Q Rxb8 34. Rxb8) 30. b6 Ke7 31. b7 Rb8
32. e5 Nd5 33. Ra1 Kd8 34. Rxa5 1-0
Schedule and results
| Round 1: Thursday, July 21, 15:00h |
| Georg Meier |
½-½ |
Le Quang Liem |
Vladimir Kramnik |
1-0 |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
Anish Giri |
½-½ |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
| Round 2: Friday, July 22, 15:00h |
Le Quang Liem |
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 |
|
Le Quang Liem |
Anish Giri |
|
Georg Meier |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Ruslan Ponomariov |
|
| Round 4: Sunday, July 24, 15:00h |
| Anish Giri |
|
Le Quang Liem |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
|
Georg Meier |
|
| Round 5: Monday, July 25, 15:00h |
| Le Quang Liem |
|
Ruslan Ponomariov |
Georg Meier |
|
Hikaru Nakamura |
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
Anish Giri |
|
| Round 6: Wednesday, July 27, 15:00h |
| Le Quang Liem |
|
Georg Meier |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Anish Giri |
|
| Round 7: Thursday, July 28, 15:00h |
| Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Le Quang Liem |
Anish Giri |
|
Ruslan Ponomariov |
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
Georg Meier |
|
| Round 8: Friday, July 29, 15:00h |
| Le Quang Liem |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Georg Meier |
|
Anish Giri |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
|
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
| Round 9: Saturday, July 30, 15:00h |
| Ruslan Ponomariov |
|
Le Quang Liem |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Georg Meier |
Anish Giri |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
| Round 10: Sunday, July 31, 15:00h |
| Le Quang Liem |
|
Anish Giri |
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
Hikaru Nakamura |
Georg Meier |
|
Ruslan Ponomariov |
|
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