Ordix Open: eight players lead with 5-0

Chess Classic Mainz 2009 The 2009 Chess Classic is taking place from July 27 to August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. The event includes tournaments and Opens in traditional and Random Chess, with stars like the current World Champion Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian of Armenia, strong Russian junior GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and top German GM Arkadij Naiditsch.

Eight players with a perfect score after first day of 16. ORDIX Open

By Eric van Reem

Saturday kicked off with the second signing session of the week. Many chess players took the opportunity to meet and greet some of the world’s best chess players. Cups, T-shirts, books, pictures, you name it – everything was signed with a smile from the grandmasters.

Even WGM Natalia Zhukova (above) obviously misses some signatures in her collection and queued up to get some pictures signed.

ORDIX Open

Hard to believe, but the Chess Classic is already counting down the days to the end of the chess festival. However, in Mainz we try to keep the best for last and in the final weekend the tradition ORDIX Open is held. For many chess lovers the ORDIX is a fixed date in their chess calendar.

Amazing: the Lord Mayor of Mainz, Jens Beutel, who is an accomplished player, taking on Super-GM and top seed Vugar Gashimov, rated 2740. The game went 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d4 b5 6.Bb3 Nxe4 7.dxe5 Be7 8.Qd5 0-0 9.Qxe4 Bb7 10.Bd5 Rb8 11.h4 Na5 12.Ng5 g6 13.Bxb7 Nxb7 14.Be3 Nc5 15.Bxc5 Bxc5 16.Nc3 Qe7 17.Nd5 Qd8 1-0.

After this "top board" game the Lord Mayor takes his place in the mass of chess players

The big names in the ORDIX this year are Gashimov, Grischuk, Kamsky, Movsesian, Nakamura, Naiditsch and Kasimdzhanov but there are many experienced grandmasters who love to play the rapid open in Mainz each year like Rafael Vaganjan, Vlastimil Hort, Ulf Andersson and Klaus Bischoff. We counted 172 (!) players with an international title and 67 grandmasters! Two ex-chess world champions started in the ORDIX today, Rustam Kasimdhzanov and Alexander Khalifman.

Ulrich Bonnaire, 2208, playing Gata Kamsky, 2717, in round one (0-1 in 30 moves)

In the first few rounds the grandmasters have a relatively easy job, although some of players who just finished the Chess960 Open obviously had some difficulties with position 518, the normal starting position which is played this weekend. Hikaru Nakamura, who won the Chess960 world championship this week, had a day off on Friday and seemed to have an “off day” in his first round game against Chess Classic bulletin editor Timo Schönhoff. The German amateur had a really promising position and the crowd gathered round the board to follow the game. However, Schönhoff missed a tactical blow by Nakamura and lost the game.

Schoenhof,T - Nakamura,H
ORDIX Open Chess Classic Mainz 2009 (1.8)
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 c6 5.g3 Nf6 6.Bg2 Be6 7.Nge2 Na6 8.0-0 Rd8 9.Ne4 Nxe4 10.Bxe4 g6 11.Bf4 Qd7 12.Qd2 Bg7 13.c3 0-0 14.Bh6 Bxh6 15.Qxh6 Bc4 16.Nf4 f5 17.Bd3 Bxd3 18.Nxd3 c5 19.Ne5 Qd6 20.Nf3 e6 21.Rad1 cxd4 22.Rxd4 Qe7 23.Rfd1 Nc7 24.h4 Rxd4 25.Rxd4 e5 26.Qe3 e4 27.Ng5 Ne8 28.Qd2 Nf6 29.Rd6 h6

30.Ne6? e3 31.Qd4? e2 32.Nxf8 e1Q+ 33.Kg2 Q7e2 34.Rxf6 Q2f1+ 35.Kh2 Qh1#

The game has ended in an unusual two-queens mate. 0-1.

Here GM Anton Shomoev, rated 2580, draws a 110-move Scandinavian against Hikaru Nakamura

It is difficult to spot the gems in a tournament with 347 games per round. If you go through the endless rows you see an exciting sacrifice on one board, a dreadful time scramble on another board, a dramatic blunder somewhere else. On the top boards on stage some strange things happened. In the game Brkic-Gashimov the highestrated player in the ORDIX missed a tactical blow.

Brkic,A. (3) - Gashimov,V. (3)
ORDIX Open Chess Classic Mainz 2009 (4.1), 01.08.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 a6 5.Be3 Nc6 6.Qd2 Bg4 7.Nc3 e6 8.0-0-0 Nf6 9.h3 Bh5 10.Qe1 Qa5 11.g4 Bg6 12.Nd2 h5 13.Nc4 Qc7 14.Bb6 Qb8 15.f4 Nd7 16.f5 Bh7 17.g5 Nce5 18.Nxe5 dxe5 19.Rxd7 Kxd7 20.Nb5 Bd6 21.fxe6+ fxe6 22.Nxd6 Qxd6 23.Qe3 Rac8 24.Bb5+ axb5 25.Rd1

In this position Gashimov played 25…Rc4. A rook move was ok in this position, but 25…Rxc2!! would have been winning! 26. Kxc2 Rc8+ 27. Bc5 Bxe4! This combination should not be too difficult for a 2700+ player, but Gashimov missed it. After some up and downs the game ended in draw: 26.Rxd6+ Kxd6 27.b3 Rc6 28.Ba5 Ke7 29.g6 Bxg6 30.Qg5+ Kf7 31.Qxe5 Rhc8 32.c3 Kg8 33.Bb4 R8c7 34.Kd2 Be8 35.Ke3 Rc8 36.h4 Ra6 37.a3 Rac6 38.Kf4 Kh7 39.Ke3 Kg8 40.Kf4 Kh7 41.Kf3 Kg8 42.Ke3 Kh7 43.Kf4 R8c7 44.Ke3 Rc8 45.Qg5 R8c7 46.Qe5 ½-½.

In the same round, Alexander Grischuk, who desperately wants to win this ORDIX to become the first player in Chess Classic history to win both Opens in one year had some difficult moments in his game against Gofshtein:

Grischuk,A. (3) - Gofshtein,L. (3)
ORDIX Open Chess Classic Mainz 2009 (4.2), 01.08.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.Nc3 d6 6.Qc2 Nbd7 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 e5 9.e3 Qe7 10.Be2 Bxc3+ 11.Qxc3 g5 12.Bg3 Ne4 13.Qc2 exd4 14.Nxd4 Ndc5 15.Nb3 Bf5 16.Nxc5 dxc5 17.Qa4+ Bd7 18.Qa3 Bc6 19.Bf3 h5 20.Bxe4 Bxe4 21.f3 Bc6 22.0-0-0 h4 23.Bf2 h3 24.e4 hxg2 25.Rhg1 Rxh2 26.Bxc5 Qe6 27.Qd3 g4 28.fxg4 Bxe4

Not a pleasant position for White – to say the least. Grischuk is a pawn down and has only twenty seconds left on the clock. However, the time control in Mainz is 20+5 and by making a few quick moves you can gather some time on the clock. After 29.Qd4 b6? 30.Rde1! Bxc5 31.Qxe4 Qxe4 32.Rxe4+ Kf8 33.Re2 Rd8 34.Rdxg2 Rxg2 35.Rxg2 White suddenly had a slightly better endgame, that Grischuk won with remarkable ease: 35...Rd4 36.b3 a4 37.Kb2 axb3 38.Kxb3 Ke7 39.g5 Kd8 40.Rf2 Rg4 41.Rf5 Kc8 42.Rxc5 c6 43.a4 Kb7 44.Rf5 Kb6 45.Kb4 Ka6 46.Kc5 Ka5 47.Kxc6+ Kxa4 48.c5 Kb4 49.Kd6 Kb5 50.Ke7 Kc6 51.Kxf7 1-0.

Round five, Alexander Grischuk vs Vladimir Potkin: 0-1 in 36 moves

Interesting stuff, and you can play through the top games of the ORDIX yourself to spot some nice combinations here and there. All transmitted games can be downloaded from the official site, the easiest way to do that is by clicking on the LIVE portal and scroll down to the 16.ORDIX Open. Then download the transmitted games in .pgn format. Tomorrow six more rounds will be played, and the 6th round starts at 10.00 AM.

The technology backstage that records the games and broadcasts them on the Internet

Pictures by Carsten Straub

• Top games from the Ordix Open

Schedule of remaining events

Links Official web site: in German and in English Event overview Detailled schdeule in PDF: Part one + Part two Daily schedule of events in PDF Registration: FiNet Chess960 Open ORDIX Open Mini FiNet + Mini Ordix Accommodation ChessBase reports Chess Classic 2002, 2003 Chess Classic 2004 + the Carmen Kass story Chess Classic 2005 Chess Classic 2006 Chess Classic 2007 Chess Classic 2008 Chess Classic 2009