TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
39th Dortmund Chess Meeting 2011 (3)
Kramnik held and is half a point clear of Ponomariov after three rounds
Mark Crowther - Saturday 23rd July 2011
Anish Giri won due to a three move tactic at the end of his game against Georg Meier. Photo © Georgios Souleidis. | http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/2011/
Vladimir Kramnik couldn't break through against Le Quang Liem and after a piece sacrifice had to give perpetual check. Hikaru Nakamura has tried to make some changes to his game to make the next step in his career but it isn't quite working, today his position went downhill pretty fast out of the opening against Ruslan Ponomariov and he lost in 41 moves. Anish Giri was almost held by Georg Meier who missed a three move tactic at the end of the game. Round 4 24th July 2pm UK time. Pairs: Giri-Le, Nakamura-Kramnik, Ponomariov-Meier.
Hikaru Nakamura against Ruslan Ponomariov. Photo © Georgios Souleidis Dortmund 2011
Ruslan Ponomariov took a measure of revenge for his recent classical match loss to Hikaru Nakamura by beating him with black in Round 3. Nakamura lost the initiative quite quickly after the novelty 11...Na5 and by move 21 it was clear Ponomariov was pressing and by move 24 winning. Nakamura resigned after first time control but in truth could have done so quite some moves earlier.
A frustrated Hikaru Nakamura tweeted after the game: "Really not playing good chess right now. Going to have to change something as it has now been 6 months since I was last on form." Photo © Georgios Souleidis Dortmund 2011
Nakamura won the Wijk aan Zee tournament in January following a year of improvement. He then set his new goal to move up the world rankings and to change his repertoire towards the elite events he was being invited to. He also didn't play the US Championships as a deliberate decision but did play a match against Ponomariov where he had the worse of it for much of the match but still managed to get a win 3.5-2.5. There is always a danger that attempted improvements can throw the baby out with the bathwater. One example from the distant past was Isaac Boleslavsky who lost the dynamism he had in 1950 by the following Candidates event in 1953. Like him Nakamura is just having making too many draws such as in Bazna where he lost two games and won just the one.
Anish Giri against Georg Meier. Photo © Georgios Souleidis Dortmund 2011
Anish Giri toughed it out against Georg Meier in spite of clearly not being on his best form. Meier had the better of the opening but should probably have played 27...Ne4 when he remained slightly better. He did however defend well and was on the verge of a draw when he missed a three move tactic that cost him the game.
Giri,Anish - Meier,Georg [E00]
39th Dortmund GM Dortmund GER (3), 23.07.2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Bf4 Bb7 11.Ne5 Nh5 12.Bd2 Nhf6 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Nc6 Bxc6 15.Qxc6 a6
[15...Rc8 16.Qb5 Nb8 17.e3 a6 18.Qe2 Qd7 1-0 in 51 moves Sargissian,G (2667) -Wojtaszek,R (2726)/Wijk aan Zee NED 2011
16.e3 b5 17.Qc2 Qc8 18.Qd3 Qc4 19.Bf1 Ne4 20.Be1 Rfc8 21.b3 Qxd3 22.Bxd3 e5 23.a4 exd4 24.exd4 b4 25.a5 Ng5 26.Be2 Rc2 27.Kf1 Rb2 28.Rd2 Rxd2 29.Nxd2 g6 30.h4 Ne6 31.Nf3 Kf8 32.Rc1 Ke8 33.Bd2 Bd8 34.Ra1 Be7 35.Ra4 Nb8 36.Bxb4 Bxb4 37.Rxb4 Nc6 38.Ra4 Ke7 39.Ke1 f6 40.Kd2 Nc7 41.Ne1 Nb5 42.Nc2 Kd6 43.Kd3 Re8 44.Bf3 Rc8 45.Kd2 f5 46.h5 Rc7 47.Be2 Ra7 48.h6 Ra8 49.Bd3 Ra7 50.Bf1 Ra8 51.Be2 Ra7 52.Bd3 Ra8 53.f3 Ra7 54.Bf1 Ra8 55.Be2 Ra7 56.Bd3 Ra8 57.Ke3 Re8+ 58.Kd2 Ra8 59.Ke3 Re8+ 60.Kf2 Ra8 61.Kg2 Ke6 62.f4 Kd6 63.g4 fxg4 64.Kg3 Nc3 65.Ra1 Ne4+ 66.Bxe4 dxe4 67.Kxg4 Rb8 68.Rb1 Nxa5 69.Ra1 Nc6 70.Rxa6
Georg Meier
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Anish Giri
Position after 70.Rxa6
70...Rxb3?
[70...Kd5 71.b4 Rb7 72.Ne3+ Kxd4 73.Nc2+ Kd5 is equal.]
71.d5! Kxd5 72.Rxc6 Kxc6 73.Nd4+ Kd5 74.Nxb3 e3 75.Nc1
White Time: 0h:10min Black Time: 0h:21min
1-0
Kramnik against Le Quang Liem. Photo © Georgios Souleidis Dortmund 2011
Vladimir Kramnik looked to have something out of the opening against Le Quang Liem but quite soon this dissipated to nothing. Kramnik's piece sacrifice on e6 was a last chance and it forced a position where he could give perpetual check.
Le Quang Liem. Photo © Georgios Souleidis Dortmund 2011
Note that the organisers are delaying the broadcast of moves by 15 minutes each round to help against possible computer cheating.
| 39th GM Dortmund (GER), 21-31 vii 2011 | cat. XX (2731) | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| 1. | Kramnik, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2781 | * | * | 1 | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | 1 | . | 2½ | 2984 |
| 2. | Ponomariov, Ruslan | g | UKR | 2764 | 0 | . | * | * | . | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | . | . | 2 | 2875 |
| 3. | Le, Quang Liem | g | VIE | 2715 | ½ | . | . | . | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 1½ | 2735 |
| 4. | Giri, Anish | g | NED | 2701 | . | . | 0 | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | 1½ | 2730 |
| 5. | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2770 | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | . | . | 1 | 2601 |
| 6. | Meier, Georg | g | GER | 2656 | 0 | . | . | . | ½ | . | 0 | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | 2459 |
| Round 3 (July 23, 2011) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kramnik, Vladimir | - Le, Quang Liem | ½-½ | 48 | D19 | Slav Defence | |
| Giri, Anish | - Meier, Georg | 1-0 | 75 | E00 | Catalan | |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | - Ponomariov, Ruslan | 0-1 | 41 | E58 | Nimzo Indian | |
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