Dortmund Rd6 – Hits and kicks all round, but no knock-outs

by ChessBase
7/27/2011 – Though the round yielded draws on all three boards, there was nothing sedate about any of them. Kramnik continued his fighting chess and built up a very threatening position against Ponomariov, but was unable to finalize and they drew. Nakamura managed to win a pawn against Giri, but found no way to convert in the endgame. Finally, Le and Meier also drew. Round six report.

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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.

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 six

Round 6: Wednesday, July 27, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
½-½
 Georg Meier
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Anish Giri


Welcome to Planet Kramnik!

The foremost match of the day was also the foremost question: would Kramnik be able to extend his amazing winning streak against Ponomariov? The players were both rested, but this was perhaps more important pyschologically for the Ukrainian who had just lost his second place to Le who defeated him in their respective game. The game had great promise and was quite exciting overall. Kramnik did indeed play very aggressively and developed a serious initiative against Ponomariov's king. At a crucial fork in the road he opted to simplify into an endgame that also gave him solid chances, but Ponomariov held his nereve and steered his way to a draw.


Ponomariov keeping his cool while under fire

[Event "39th GM"] [Site "Dortmund GER"] [Date "2011.07.27"] [Round "6"] [White "Ponomariov, Ruslan"] [Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2764"] [BlackElo "2781"] [PlyCount "100"] [EventDate "2011.07.21"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. O-O Nd4 6. Nxd4 Bxd4 7. Nd2 c6 8. Ba4 d6 9. c3 Bb6 10. Nc4 Bc7 11. Bb3 O-O 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bh4 g5 14. Bg3 Bg4 15. f3 Be6 16. Re1 Nh5 17. Bf2 Nf4 18. d4 exd4 19. cxd4 d5 20. exd5 Bxd5 21. Qc2 g4 22. Nd2 Qg5 23. Ne4 Qg6 24. Bxd5 Nxd5 25. Qb3 Rae8 26. Ng3 h5 27. fxg4 hxg4 28. Rxe8 Rxe8 29. Qxb7 Rb8 30. Qxa7 Rxb2 31. Rf1 Qc2 32. Qc5 Rxa2 33. Qxc2 Rxc2 34. Nf5 Kh7 35. g3 Bb6 36. Re1 Bd8 37. Ne3 Nxe3 38. Rxe3 Kg6 39. Re4 Bg5 40. Kf1 f6 41. d5 cxd5 42. Rxg4 Kf5 43. Rd4 Ke5 44. Rd1 Ke4 45. Rd4+ Kf3 46. Rd3+ Ke4 47. Rd4+ Ke5 48. Rd1 Ke4 49. Rd4+ Kf3 50. Rd3+ Ke4 1/2-1/2

The new second place, Vietnamese Le, had a relatively quiet game against Meier, and there never seemed to be any real chance to rock the boat.


Georg Meier


Quang Liem Le, second place and undefeated

[Event "39th GM"] [Site "Dortmund GER"] [Date "2011.07.27"] [Round "6"] [White "Le, Quang Liem"] [Black "Meier, Georg"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D37"] [WhiteElo "2715"] [BlackElo "2656"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "2011.07.21"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. Qa4+ c6 6. Qxc4 b5 7. Qd3 a6 8. e4 c5 9. e5 Nd5 10. Bg5 Qb6 11. Nxd5 exd5 12. dxc5 Bxc5 13. Qc2 Nc6 14. Rc1 Bb4+ 15. Bd2 Nd4 16. Nxd4 Qxd4 17. Bxb4 Qxb4+ 18. Qc3 Qe4+ 19. Be2 O-O 20. f3 Qh4+ 21. g3 Qh6 22. Kf2 Be6 23. Qd4 Rac8 24. Rc3 Rxc3 25. bxc3 Rc8 26. h4 f6 27. a4 bxa4 28. Ra1 fxe5 29. Qxe5 Bf7 30. Qd4 Qc6 31. Rxa4 Qxc3 32. Qxc3 Rxc3 33. Rxa6 Kf8 34. Ra8+ Ke7 35. Ra7+ Kf8 36. Ra8+ Ke7 37. Ra7+ Kf8 38. Ra8+ 1/2-1/2


Hikaru Nakamura: battling to the bones

Nakamura again played the longest game of the round, and again played just short of the naked kings. In this case he had the upperhand against Giri, with an extra pawn, but the conditions were such that he had no chance of using his king to push forward, and they eventually drew after 72 moves.


Once again, Nakamura's game was the longest of the round, this time against Giri

[Event "39th GM"] [Site "Dortmund GER"] [Date "2011.07.27"] [Round "6"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Giri, Anish"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E53"] [WhiteElo "2770"] [BlackElo "2701"] [PlyCount "143"] [EventDate "2011.07.21"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8. exd4 dxc4 9. Bxc4 b6 10. Qe2 Bb7 11. Bg5 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Nbd7 13. Bd3 Qc7 14. c4 h6 15. Bd2 Ng4 16. Be4 Bxe4 17. Qxe4 Ngf6 18. Qe2 Qc6 19. a4 Rac8 20. Rfc1 Qe4 21. Be3 Rc7 22. a5 Rfc8 23. Nd2 Qf5 24. axb6 axb6 25. f3 e5 26. Rcb1 exd4 27. Bxd4 Qf4 28. Qf2 Rc6 29. Re1 Rd6 30. Be3 Qf5 31. Bxh6 Rdc6 32. Be3 Ne5 33. Red1 Nfd7 34. Ra7 Qc2 35. Rda1 Nf8 36. h3 Nxc4 37. Nxc4 Rxc4 38. Qxc2 Rxc2 39. Bxb6 Rb2 40. Bc7 Ne6 41. Ra8 Rxa8 42. Rxa8+ Kh7 43. Be5 Re2 44. Ra5 g5 45. Rb5 Kg6 46. Kf1 Rc2 47. Rb2 Rxb2 48. Bxb2 f5 49. g3 g4 50. fxg4 fxg4 51. h4 Nc5 52. Ke2 Ne4 53. Be5 Kf5 54. Bc7 Nf6 55. Kd3 Ne4 56. Bb8 Nf6 57. Kd4 Ne4 58. Bf4 Nf6 59. Be5 Ne4 60. Kd5 Nd2 61. Bf4 Nf1 62. h5 Nxg3 63. h6 Nh5 64. Bc7 Kg6 65. Ke4 Kxh6 66. Kf5 g3 67. Bb6 g2 68. Bg1 Ng3+ 69. Kf4 Ne2+ 70. Kf3 Nxg1+ 71. Kf2 Nf3 72. Kxg2 1/2-1/2

Pictures by Georgios Souleidis

Standings after six rounds


Schedule and results

Round 1: Thursday, July 21, 15:00h
Georg Meier 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Anish Giri 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura 
Round 2: Friday, July 22, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
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 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Anish Giri 
1-0
 Georg Meier
Hikaru Nakamura 
0-1
 Ruslan Ponomariov 
Round 4: Sunday, July 24, 15:00h
Anish Giri 
½-½
 Quang Liem Le
Hikaru Nakamura 
0-1
 Vladimir Kramnik
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Georg Meier
Round 5: Monday, July 25, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
1-0
 Ruslan Ponomariov 
Georg Meier 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
 Anish Giri
Round 6: Wednesday, July 27, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
½-½
 Georg Meier
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Anish Giri
Round 7: Thursday, July 28, 15:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Quang Liem Le
Anish Giri 
   Ruslan Ponomariov 
Vladimir Kramnik 
   Georg Meier
Round 8: Friday, July 29, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le  
   Vladimir Kramnik
Georg Meier 
   Anish Giri
Ruslan Ponomariov 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Round 9: Saturday, July 30, 15:00h
Ruslan Ponomariov 
   Quang Liem Le
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Georg Meier
Anish Giri 
   Vladimir Kramnik
Round 10: Sunday, July 31, 15:00h
Quang Liem Le 
   Anish Giri
Vladimir Kramnik 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Georg Meier 
   Ruslan Ponomariov 

Links

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.

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