Surprise in first round of Dortmund

by Alejandro Ramirez
7/12/2014 – The Dortmund Sparkassen chess meeting has begun in Dortmund, Germany. With five chess super-stars and three powerful German players the tournament usually provides an interesting mix of top level chess and clashes between the locals and the foreigners, with the super GMs winning most of those points. However, as Meier proved today, that is not always the case.
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The traditional Dortmund Sparkassen Super-Tournament is now under way in Dortmund, Germany. The event is being held at the Orchestra Center and it features three of the top German players alongside five of the World super-elite.

The players of this year are no strangers to Dortmund. Russian powerhouse Vladimir Kramnik has won Dortmund no less than ten times! Peter Leko is the second seed and has won Dortmund three times, in 1999, 2002 and 2008. Meanwhile Ruslan Ponomariov has the 2010 edition of Dortmund under his belt.

The first seed of the tournament however is Fabiano Caruana. Thte list of foreign players is rounded off by Michael Adams who, despite his 42 years, showed the World that he is in top form by having a fantastic 2013.

The German players are headed by Arkadij Naiditsch, who surprised the world by winning the 2005 edition of Dortmund. Georg Meier will be playing his fourth edition of Dortmund and he is trying to gain more successes in his home land; he recently won the Bundesliga with OSG Baden-Baden. Last but not least David Baramidze will try to show the World that he belongs in these types of events.

The festival of course also includes a series of side events including a strong open tournament.

Round One

Round 01 – June 19 2014, 15:00h
David Baramidze 2616
0-1
 Caruana, Fabiano 2789
Vladimir Kramnik 2777
0-1
 Georg Meier 2518
Arkadij Naiditsch 2705
½-½
 Michael Adams 2743
Peter Leko 2737
½-½
 Ruslan Ponomariov 2723

Baramidze-Caruana was as long game, but the German player could not hold at the end

Vladimir Kramnik was very surprised by his opponent...

Georg Meier, with a big win!

The first round started with a great upset as Georg Meier had no problems dispatching Vladimir Kramnik... and with the black pieces! Meier's game was truly the highlight of today's round:

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1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 d5 So far a Standard opening. White usually takes on d5 and plays a reverse English. Kramnik, however, sometimes likes to choose a less known path against weaker players. 5.0-0 not the first time that Kramnik plays this, actually he has tried it against strong players. d4 6.a3?! However this is just strange. 6.e3 is a reverse Benoni - almost. e5 7.exd4 cxd4 8.d3 led to a true reverse Benoni in the game Kramnik-Caruana last year in Zurich. You can find the annotations to that game by Andreikin in the Megabase. 6...e5 7.d3 a5 8.e4?! White is simply not challenging Black's space advantage. This reverse type of King's Indian is dubious at best. Black, unlike the normal KID, has not committed his king to the kingside and this is surprisingly important. Be7 9.Ne1 Moving White's knight and play f4 is probably White's only idea. 9.Nh4 g6 Leaves White without moves since f4 isn't desirable. 10.f4 exf4 11.gxf4 11.Bxf4 Nd7 12.Nf3 g5!? 11...Nxe4 9...h5!? An interesting approach. Black had several ways of playing that would have caused White a headache, but this one is rather logical. The point is that White can only attack on the kingside, but if it for some reason blows up it is only White's king that is on that side of the board. 10.f4 h4 11.f5 Surely not something Kramnik wanted to do, but what else? Black already holds a strong advantage only 10 moves into the game. hxg3 12.hxg3 g6! Exact response! 13.Nd2 13.fxg6 fxg6 opens up too many lines against White's own king. Black only has to 0-0-0 and bring his pieces to the kingside. Notice how useless White's army is. 14.Bg5 Ng4-+ 13...gxf5 14.exf5 Rg8 15.Qf3 Bd7 Simple moves are good enough here. 16.Rf2 Qb6! Certainly logical! The Black king runs to the queenside and then the attack will unfold naturally. 16...Ng4 17.Rf1 Rg5 and it's hard for White to keep the f5 pawn alive. However I like Meier's approach better. 17.Re2 0-0-0 18.Ne4 Qb3 Surprisingly, the kingside is not the only place that White has problems. 19.Nf2 a4 20.Bh6 Bf8 21.Bxf8 Rdxf8 22.g4 Rg7 23.Ne4 Nxe4 24.Qxe4 Rfg8 25.Bf3 f6 26.Rg2 Black's domination is now obvious. Nd8 27.Qe2 Bc6 28.Bxc6 bxc6 29.Qe4 Kc7 30.Nf3 Nf7 31.Rf1 Nd6 With the fall of the pawn on g4 the game is over. 32.Qe2 Rxg4 33.Rff2 Nxf5 White is two pawns down and has the worst position. The German player mops up easily now. 34.Nd2 Rxg2+ 35.Rxg2 Rxg2+ 36.Kxg2 Qxb2 37.Kf3 Nd6 38.Qh2 Qxa3 39.Ke2 Qb2 40.Qh7+ Kb6 41.Qe7 Nb7 A surprisingly easy game for Meier! 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Kramnik,V2777Meier,G26320–12014A0942nd GM 20141

Mean while Caruana was the only other winner of the today. He beat Baramidze in a very long game. White made some mistakes in an equal bishop endgame that ended up costing him the full point.

Round One Games

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1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.0-0 Bg7 6.c4 0-0 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.Re1 Qf7 9.b3 Ne4 10.Qc2 Nc6 11.Be3 Nxc3 12.Qxc3 e5 13.d5 Nb8 14.Rac1 h6 15.c5 Na6 16.cxd6 cxd6 17.h4 Bd7 18.Qd2 Kh7 19.Red1 b6 20.Ne1 Rac8 21.Nd3 Nc5 22.Nb2 Qe7 23.b4 Na4 24.Nxa4 Bxa4 25.Rxc8 Rxc8 26.Rc1 Qd7 27.Rxc8 Qxc8 28.Qc1 Qxc1+ 29.Bxc1 Bc2 30.f3 Bf6 31.Kf2 Kg7 32.e4 f4 33.Bh3 h5 34.Bd7 g5 35.hxg5 Bxg5 36.Kg2 Kf6 37.g4 h4 38.Bb5 Bd1 39.Bd3 h3+ 40.Kxh3 Bxf3 41.b5 Bh6 42.Kh4 Kg6 43.Bd2 Bf8 44.Be1 Bg2 45.g5 Bf3 46.a4 Be7 47.a5 Bxg5+ 48.Kh3 Kf7 49.axb6 axb6 50.Bf2 Bd8 51.Bg1 Kg6 52.Bf2 Kh5 53.Bg1 Bd1 54.Kg2 Kg4 55.Kf1 Kg3 56.Bf2+ Kh2 57.Bg1+ Kh1 58.Bf2 Bh5 59.Bg1 Bg4 60.Bf2 Bf3 61.Ke1 Kg2 62.Bf1+ Kh2 63.Bd3 Bh5 64.Kf1 Bg6 65.Bc2 Kh3 66.Kg1 Kg4 67.Kf1 Kh3 68.Kg1 Kg4 69.Kf1 f3 70.Be1 f2 71.Bxf2 Kf3 72.Bd1+ Kf4 73.Bb3 Be8 74.Bc4 Kxe4 75.Ke2 Bh5+ 0–1
  • Start an analysis engine:
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Baramidze,D2616Caruana,F27890–12014A8142nd GM 20141
Naiditsch,A2705Adams,M2743½–½2014C6742nd GM 20141
Kramnik,V2777Meier,G26320–12014A3042nd GM 20141
Leko,P2737Ponomariov,R2723½–½2014A8842nd GM 20141

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Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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