Nine-times winner Vladimir Kramnik defeated last year’s winner Ruslan Ponomariov in the first round of the Sparkassen Chess Festival in Dortmund, Germany. The other games, Meier-Le Quang Liem and Giri-Nakamura, ended in draws.General info
The 39th Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place July 21-31, 2011 in the City Theater of Dortmund, Germany. Like Biel, it’s a 6-player double round robin event. This year Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Ruslan Ponomariov, Anish Giri, Le Quang Liem and Georg Meier play.
For the second time Dortmund uses an anti-draw rule: the players are not allowed to offer a draw during the game. The game will be declared a draw when a win for either side is not possible any more, or in case of a three-fold repetition.
Traditionally the drawing of lots for the Dortmund tournament takes place months in advance. It was done on April 7th, and so the players could already start preparing concretely. And then, on July 21st, the tournament finally started.
In the first round, nine times winner Vladimir Kramnik defeated last year’s winner Ruslan Ponomariov in an excellent game. It started with the King’s Indian Defence. “I didn’t expect this. We got a very complicated position with numerous possibilities for both sides. Perhaps my opponent could have held the balance in the end, but it was very difficult,” said the Russian.
Local hero Georg Meier and Le Quang Liem drew their game already after about an hour playing. In a Grünfeld (Moscow Variation) the German grandmaster thought he could surprise his opponent with a new move. The Vietnamese had done his homework and managed to equalized comfortably. The resulting rook ending didn’t give any winning chances.
Anish Giri and Hikaru Nakamura, both playing in Dortmund for the first time, started with a draw in a Queen’s Gambit Declined. The young Dutchman managed to get some play on the queenside without allowing too much counterplay on the other side of the board. After the time control it seemed that he started to get the upper hand, but with some precise moves the American found a way to finish the game with perpetual check.
Dortmund 2011 | Schedule & results
| Round 1 | 21.07.11 | 15:00 CET | Round 6 | 27.07.11 | 15:00 CET | |
| Meier | ½-½ | Le Quang Liem | Le Quang Liem | - | Meier | |
| Kramnik | 1-0 | Ponomariov | Ponomariov | - | Kramnik | |
| Giri | ½-½ | Nakamura | Nakamura | - | Giri | |
| Round 2 | 22.07.11 | 15:00 CET | Round 7 | 28.07.11 | 15:00 CET | |
| Le Quang Liem | - | Nakamura | Nakamura | - | Le Quang Liem | |
| Ponomariov | - | Giri | Giri | - | Ponomariov | |
| Meier | - | Kramnik | Kramnik | - | Meier | |
| Round 3 | 23.07.11 | 15:00 CET | Round 8 | 29.07.11 | 15:00 CET | |
| Kramnik | - | Le Quang Liem | Le Quang Liem | - | Kramnik | |
| Giri | - | Meier | Meier | - | Giri | |
| Nakamura | - | Ponomariov | Ponomariov | - | Nakamura | |
| Round 4 | 24.07.11 | 15:00 CET | Round 9 | 30.07.11 | 15:00 CET | |
| Giri | - | Le Quang Liem | Ponomariov | - | Le Quang Liem | |
| Nakamura | - | Kramnik | Nakamura | - | Meier | |
| Ponomariov | - | Meier | Giri | - | Kramnik | |
| Round 5 | 25.07.11 | 15:00 CET | Round 10 | 31.07.11 | 13:00 CET | |
| Le Quang Liem | - | Ponomariov | Le Quang Liem | - | Giri | |
| Meier | - | Nakamura | Kramnik | - | Nakamura | |
| Kramnik | - | Giri | Meier | - | Ponomariov |
Dortmund 2011 | Round 1 Standings
| # | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pts | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kramnik, Vladimir | 2781 | 2963 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| 2 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2770 | 2701 | ½ | 0.5 | 0.25 | |||||
| 3 | Le, Quang Liem | 2715 | 2656 | ½ | 0.5 | 0.25 | |||||
| 4 | Giri, Anish | 2701 | 2770 | ½ | 0.5 | 0.25 | |||||
| 5 | Meier, Georg | 2656 | 2715 | ½ | 0.5 | 0.25 | |||||
| 6 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | 2764 | 2582 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
No comments:
Post a Comment