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Home » Chess News » Events » Sparkassen Chess-Meeting Dortmund 2010 » Mamedyarov and Ponomariov are Round 1 winners in Dortmund

Sparkassen GM Dortmund (GER), 15-25 vii 2010											cat. XX (2731)
					1		2		3		4		5		6
1.	Ponomariov, Ruslan	g	UKR	2734	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
2.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2761	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
3.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2790	.	.	.	.	*	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2681
4.	Le Quang Liem	g	VIE	2681	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	½	2790
5.	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2734	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	0
6.	Naiditsch, Arkadij	g	GER	2684	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	0

Round 1 (July 15, 2010)
Ponomariov, Ruslan	- Leko, Peter	1-0	57	C45	Scotch Game
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Le Quang Liem	½-½	64	D19	Slav Defence
Naiditsch, Arkadij	- Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	0-1	47	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation

Arkadij Naiditsch got a miserable position shortly after the players left theory. He overlooked a tactic which exposed his weak back rank and lack of development and by move 24 was close to being lost.

Now here 19.Bg5 seems best because the game went

19. Rf1 Qd6 20. Rxf5 Qxd5 21. Rxe5 Rae8! 22. Bf4 Rxe5 23. Qxe5 Qxe5 24. Bxe5 f6

and here it is clear white is in for a very long struggle to hold this position. He has a weak back-rank with his king shut in by black's bishop. Nor did 25.Bd4 Bxd4 26.cxd4 look very much more appetising.

Mamedyarov won in 47 moves.

The favourite Vladimir Kramnik achieved very little against Le Quang Liem's Slav Defence. Indeed Kramnik had to be perhaps a little careful. They traded into an ending where Kramnik had a passed d-pawn but these heavy piece endings are notoriously drawish. However Kramnik being Kramnik he certainly found a way to test his opponent Le Quang Liem who after his Aeroflot Open success qualified for this, his first super-tournament. However in the end Le held comfortably enough in the final game to finish.

Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko discussed a variation of the Scotch Defence.

This position seemed to be fairly balanced but white retained something of an edge due to slightly more active pieces and the weak b4-pawn created when his knight was exchanged on that square. They eventually traded down to a Rook and pawn ending where Ponomariov had a passed a-pawn.

Rook and Pawn endings are notoriously tricky. At first sight it seemed to me that Leko should be able to hold this (possibly 39...Rb2+ instead of grabbing the g-pawn immediately.) but very quickly his position became hopeless.

White's King returns to the Kingside too quickly.

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

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