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 with 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.
| 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 3: Saturday, July 23, 15:00h | ||
Vladimir Kramnik |
½-½ |
Le Quang Liem |
Anish Giri |
1-0 |
Georg Meier |
Hikaru Nakamura |
0-1 |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
An avid audience packs the auditorium
Young Anish Giri finally posted his first win in Dortmund, and while wone would love to cheer and yell, the truth is it was a the result of a last-minute blunder from his opponent. After 70 moves of trying to make something from nothing, and having no luck, Giri was no doubt getting ready to accept the inevitable when on move 70 Meier suddenly blundered away a piece and the game. It might not be the ideal way to notch a win, but persistence does have its rewards.
Giri's strategy was remniscent of siege tactics of ancient times: if you cannot beat
them by brute force, wait them out until they just collapse.
Kramnik finally conceded his first half-point when he drew Le Quang Liem.
Unable to crack the Vietnamese prodigy, Kramnik drew against Le Quang Liem
Le Quang Liem is undefeated so far, and in his second Dortmund through extraordinary
circumstances: winning the Aeroflot Open twice in a row.
Despite having the worst kind of start, Ponomariov's composure has brought him back right on the heels of Kramnik. The 2010 winner might have been disappointed to lose against a player he knew felt completely at home in Dortmund, but he was nowhere near ready to stop believing this year's tournament was still his to win. His victory over Nakamura was as clean as could be as he built up his position inch by inch via precise play and minute mistakes by the American.
One cannot argue his combativity, as Ponomariov is second
and nary a
draw in sight.
Pictures 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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