The Dortmund Chess Festival is underway with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik back in action and facing Peter Leko, the man who nearly took his title in 2005 in a tied match at Brissago.

The first round draw is as follows with the new world rankings in brackets

Vladimir Kramnik (6) v Peter Leko (7); Magnus Carlsen (3) v Dmitry Jakovenko (5); Arkady Naiditsch (36) v Etienne Bacrot (17)

The organisers are always rather conservative with the field and there are three former winners including local GM Arkady Naiditsch who won in 2005 ahead of both Veselin Topalov and Kramnik. Kramnik has won Dortmund eight times but last year his Petroff Defence was undone twice and he finished below 50% as Leko took the honours. The players face each other twice so there will be ten games.

There were a few quick draws at the 1st Big Slick International as the pace eased. Possibly some of the players became distracted by the poker game at the venue of the Big Slick Poker Club in Purley. Alexei Slavin of Russia joined the leaders after dispatching Jack Rudd in just 22 moves after the latter pursued his own objectives and rather ignored his opponent's ideas.

A Slavin - J Rudd

1st Big Slick GM (4)

Leningrad Dutch

1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.c3

(Rudd is known for his rapid play and this solid setup is designed to provoke him, which it does)

4...f5 5.e3 Be6

(5...Nf6)

6.Bh4

(To facilitate Ng5 at some point which is studiously ignored)

6...Nf6 7.Nbd2 c5

(7...h6 8.Bc4 d5 9.Be2)

8.dxc5 dxc5 9.Ng5 Bd5 10.Bc4! Nc6

(10...Bxc4 11.Nxc4 Qxd1+ 12.Rxd1 and Black cannot prevent Ne6)

11.Ne6 Bxe6 12.Bxe6

(Black is prevented from castling and is already in some trouble)

12...Qd6 13.Qb3 b5?

(13...Kf8 Threatens Na5 14.0-0-0; Na5 15.Qb5 Qxe6 16.Qxa5 Kf7)

14.Bg3 Qd3 15.0-0-0

(Threatening Nf3)

15...Bh6

(Played just to stop Ng5 after Nf3, Black is lost. If 15...a6 16.Nf3 Qe4 17.Ng5 Qg4 18.Bf7+ Kf8 19.Ne6+ Kxf7 20.Ng5+ Kf8 21.Qf7#)

16.Rhe1 a5 17.a4 b4 18.Nc4 Qe4 19.Bf7+ Kf8 20.f3 Nd4 21.cxd4 Qb7 22.Ne5 1-0

Latest scores: 1-3 Arkell, Cherniaev (Russia), Slavin (Russia) 3/4; 4 Galego (Portugal) 2.5; 5-6 Rudd, Poobalasingam 2, 7-8 Gormally, Ansell 1.5, 9 Eames 1; 10 Kjartansson (Iceland) 0.5

The Austrian master Ernst Falkbeer was born almost exactly 190 years ago. He gave his name to the sharpest counter to the Kings Gambit, the Falkbeer Counter Gambit which runs 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 and was a very popular choice in the 19th and 20th century.

O Rigaud - JG Cooper

Nice Olympiad 1974

1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.fxe5?? Qh4+ 4.g3 Qxe4+ 5.Kf2 Bc5+ 0-1

D Le Godec - N Gavrilakis

Pau Open 1988

1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 c6 4.Nc3 exf4 5.Be2 Bd6 6.d4 Ne7 7.Nf3 0-0 8.0-0 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 cxd5 10.Ne5 f6 11.Nd3 g5 12.Bf3 Be6 13.c4 dxc4 14.Bxb7 Nd7 15.Nf2 Rb8 16.Bf3 f5 17.h3 Nf6 18.d5 Bd7 19.Kh1 g4 20.hxg4 fxg4 0-1

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