Dortmund Rd4 – Kramnik unstoppable at 3.5/4 and 3064 performance

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

Round four

German GM Georg Meier was able to equalise to an opposite-coloured bishops ending, which former FIDE knockout world champion Ruslan Ponomariov tried hard to win. The Ukrainian turned his extra pawn into a bishop-for-a-pawn advantage on move 55 and tried for 36 more moves to find a win. But Meier defended impeccably and the game ended in a deserved draw.

American GM Hikaru Nakamura essentially self-destructed in an equal position when he went for more than the position could yield. A rejuvenated Vladimir Kramnik, who used to win Dortmund like other GMs eat popcorn, got what he truly excels in: endgames with a small advantage in which he can outplay his opponent.

On his Twitter page Hikaru ruefully wrote: "Apparently I have resolved that if I cannot win a game of chess, I must do everything within my power to lose instead. Good game plan!" and "It is one thing to be outplayed, but when your opponent himself states quite clearly that it took a lot to lose the position..."

On the same Twitter account Hikaru posted: "While I try to avoid politics, this pictorial website showing the national debt is hilarious!" Indeed, but not for the faint-hearted.

Anish Giri's symmetrical fianchetto did not get him anything against Le Quang Liem, whose Grünfeld stood him in good stead. After the heavy pieces came off the board the bishop and many pawns ending at move 31 was clearly a draw.

Standings after four rounds

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The 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.

Previous reports

• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2011
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2010
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2009
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2008
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2007
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2006
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2004
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003

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