Kramnik close to 10th Dortmund title

Vladimir Kramnik is very close to winning his 10th Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. Today the Russian defeated Georg Meier and extended his lead to two full points, as Le Quang Liem drew with Hikaru Nakamura. Anish Giri won against Ruslan Ponomariov.

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.

Round 7

'Kramnik continues Dortmund masterclass' was the headline Mark Crowther picked for the 7th round, and it was a good one. It's not just that he's winning a lot of games, but the way he's winning them is quite impressive: as soon as the games become tactical, he calculates well and finds blow after blow.



This is also what happened on Thursday, against Georg Meier. The young German didn't play badly at all, during the first 22 moves or so. But after choosing a bit of a passive plan, the tournament leader had no mercy.

Kramnik-Meier Dortmund, 2011



32. d5! Bc5 32... cxd5 33. Nxb6 is not better. 33. Bxc5 bxc5 34. e6!? 34. d6 was also strong of course. 34... Kf8?! 35. Na5



and White's advantage was overwhelming.



Although we're not a hundred percent neutral here, we cannot say it differently: Anish Giri won an excellent game against Ruslan Ponomariov. Together with his second Vladimir Chuchelov he had found an improvement upon the game Mamedyarov-Kramnik, played in Dortmund last year, and managed to end up with a extra pawn. The rook ending might have been drawn, but after one more inaccuracy by his opponent, Giri could cash:

Giri-Ponomariov Dortmund, 2011



50... a6?! This might have been the decisive mistake. 50... Rb7. 51. Rxa6 Rb5 52. f4 Rb3 53. Re4 Rcc3 54. a4 $1 Rxe3+ 55. Rxe3 Rxe3+ 56. Kf2 Ra3 57. Ra7 The white rook is passive but this specific pawn structure on the kingside works very well for White as Black has no active plan. 57... Kf8 58. a5 Ke8 59. a6 Kf8 60. Ke2 Ke8 61. Ra8+ Kd7 62. a7



62...Kc6 An important idea, which is another result of this pawn structure, is 62... Ke7 63. f5! gxf5 64. g6! fxg6 65. Rh8+-. 63. Rc8+ Kb7 64. Rf8 1-0



Hikaru Nakamura still didn't manage to win a game in Dortmund yet. In fact, at some point he was considerably worse, after Le Quang Liem had found some nice moves. But then the Vietnamese seemed to lose track, and the game petered out into a draw.

Games round 7

Game viewer by ChessTempo


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	½-½	Meier
Kramnik	1-0	Ponomariov		Ponomariov	½-½	Kramnik
Giri	½-½	Nakamura		Nakamura	½-½	Giri
Round 2	22.07.11	15:00 CET		Round 7	28.07.11	15:00 CET
Le Quang Liem	½-½	Nakamura		Nakamura	½-½	Le Quang Liem
Ponomariov	1-0	Giri		Giri	1-0	Ponomariov
Meier	0-1	Kramnik		Kramnik	1-0	Meier
Round 3	23.07.11	15:00 CET		Round 8	29.07.11	15:00 CET
Kramnik	½-½	Le Quang Liem		Le Quang Liem	-	Kramnik
Giri	1-0	Meier		Meier	-	Giri
Nakamura	0-1	Ponomariov		Ponomariov	-	Nakamura
Round 4	24.07.11	15:00 CET		Round 9	30.07.11	15:00 CET
Giri	½-½	Le Quang Liem		Ponomariov	-	Le Quang Liem
Nakamura	0-1	Kramnik		Nakamura	-	Meier
Ponomariov	½-½	Meier		Giri	-	Kramnik
Round 5	25.07.11	15:00 CET		Round 10	31.07.11	13:00 CET
Le Quang Liem	1-0	Ponomariov		Le Quang Liem	-	Giri
Meier	½-½	Nakamura		Kramnik	-	Nakamura
Kramnik	1-0	Giri		Meier	-	Ponomariov

Dortmund 2011 | Round 7 Standings

Photos © Georgios Souleidis, more here

Links

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• Games in PGN via TWIC