Dortmund concludes: Vishy Anand Victorious

Finals game 2 – Sunday, August 1

Dortmund 2004 final standings

Champion: Viswanathan Anand
2: Vladimir Kramnik
3: Peter Svidler
4: Peter Leko
5: Arkady Naiditsch
6: Sergey Rublevsky
7: Victor Bologan
8: Sergey Karjakin

India's Viswanathan Anand added a new trophy to his collection today, one that represents his first Dortmund victory. (Anand scored equal firsts in 1996 and 2000, but Kramnik got the title on tiebreak rules both times.) It was a deserving triumph in a format not necessarily designed to reward the brave. Anand scored wins over Svidler and Rublevsky in classical chess and then beat Leko and Kramnik in rapid games to take the title.

The Tiger and the Lady, wife Aruna. (Photo by Dagobert Kohlmeyer, Berlin)

After yesterday's incredible first game between the finalists today was something of an anticlimax. In the classical game Kramnik played into a known slightly superior endgame but his legendary grinding skills were unable to make progress. Anand sacrificed a pawn for activity and notched the draw in 47 moves. That moved the final match to the unfortunate reality of rapid games.

"Schnellschach," as it is called, was played in Dortmund at the time control of 15'+5", faster than the standard rapid control of 25'+10". Since Anand is the acknowledged speed king of the chess world he was the clear favorite. He gained a quick draw with black in the first game, 19 moves in a Ruy Lopez.

The second rapid game became the latest of Kramnik's failed experiments with the Najdorf Sicilian. The classical world champion took up this sharpest of defenses only recently, losing two games with it at Corus this year. He continued to dabble in a few Amber blindfold games and then put it on the shelf until trying it against young Karjakin last week in Dortmund, a game he could have lost on several occasions.

Anand, a veteran Sicilian-killer, was not so forgiving. In a lopsided game, Kramnik didn't make much progress on the queenside while Anand was blasting through against his king. When Kramnik resigned on move 31 Anand's king was far safer than should be possible in a Najdorf! So much of chess is intuition built on experience you can't help but wonder if Kramnik would have been better off playing one of his favorite defenses in such a critical game.

In the final position after 31.Bg4 (left) White will win the exchange with Be6+ and still maintain a strong attack.

The draw in the second classical game was Kramnik's tenth straight in this year's Dortmund. Last year he won his first game and drew nine in a row, so this makes 19 consecutive Dortmund draws!

The Svidler-Leko match also went to rapid games after a short draw. Svidler held the first tiebreaker with black. In the second he used an acrobatic knight to win an endgame that looked roughly equal at the outset. Like Kramnik, Leko drew all ten of his games in Dortmund. He lost three rapid games and scored a single rapid win, against Karjakin in the Group 2 playoff.

Local boy Arkady Naiditsch finished his excellent run by holding Rublevsky to win their match for 5th place. Bologan defeated a tired Karjakin for his only win of the event. Despite his late fade it was a strong performance by the 14-year-old Ukrainian Karjakin. His game with white against Kramnik will be his "big fish that got away" for a while, although he did reel in Big Vlad in a rapid playoff game for consolation.

In sum, a deserving winner in a somewhat unfortunate tournament. A mind-numbing 78% of the games were drawn. Of the 12 games between the 2700 heavyweights, only one was decisive. Seeing such a powerful, supposedly classical, tournament decided by rapid and blitz is depressing, but as we saw in Linares this year, no format (or player) is immune to the draw-disease. The 2002 Dortmund tournament used a similar format and was full of decisive games and exciting chess.

We'll have more for Dortmund in the coming days, including photos, analysis, and interviews.

Participants

Full schedule and scoresheet