Ponomariov beats Nakamura in 8th round Dortmund

Ruslan Ponomariov also won his second game against Hikarua Nakamura. In today's 8th round in Dortmund Vladimir Kramnik maintained his 2-point lead after drawing with second placed Le Quang Liem. The game between Georg Meier and Anish Giri also ended in a draw.

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 8

With just two rounds to go, Vladimir Kramnik leads the Sparkassen Chess Meeting with two full points. It could have been one less, as on Friday the Russian was put under heavy pressure by runner-up Le Quang Liem.

The Vietnamese played another excellent game in Dortmund and started with his own way of avoiding heavy QGD theory: 5.b3 and 6.Bb2. Just before the time control Kramnik made a small calculating error, after which he was on the verge of losing. One inaccurate move by Le, and stubborn defence by Kramnik, eventually led to a hard-fought draw.



After losing to Hikaru Nakamura in a match in St. Louis in May, Ruslan Ponomariov took revenge by scoring 2-0 against the same opponent in Dortmund. In the 8th round the Ukrainian chose a rare but very solid line against the American's King's Indian that involved an early exchange of queens.



At some point the former FIDE world champion exchanged a bishop for the opponent's knight in order to create a dangerous passed pawn on the g-file. This tied the opposing forces and allowed Ponomariov to penetrate with his rooks into Black's position. Nakamura tried a last mating trick, but to no avail.



Georg Meier and Anish Giri also played a hard-fought draw. In the end it was the German who could be very satisfied with this result. In a topical Catalan he sacrificed a pawn, but Giri neutralised his initiative quickly. Then, the young Dutchman missed an opportunity to attack the weakened white king's position. Instead he reached an ending with an extra pawn that was impossible to win.

Games round 8

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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	½-½	Kramnik
Giri	1-0	Meier		Meier	½-½	Giri
Nakamura	0-1	Ponomariov		Ponomariov	1-0	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 8 Standings

Photos © Georgios Souleidis, more here

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