Magnus Carlsen set the pace in the opening round of the Sparkasse Dortmund Chess Festival as he was the only victor. The eighteen year old Norwegian ranked third in the world outplayed Dmitry Jakovenko who was unable to celebrate his ascent to fifth place in the world rankings, released on July 1, for long.

Jakovenko played the Berlin Wall Defence which leads to an early exchange of queens but Carlsen has already demonstrated a natural feel for endgames and in a fairly level looking position he managed to set his opponent problems. Although Jakovenko held rook and bishop against Carlsen's rook and knight on a fairly open board, Carlsen exploited the fixed pawn structure and showed that the knight was better than the bishop - see below.

M Carlsen - D Jakovenko

Sparkassen GM Dortmund (1)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Ne2 Be7 12.Bg5

(Eliminating the bishop pair)

12...Be6 13.Nf4 Bd5 14.Bxe7 Kxe7

(14...Bxf3 15.Bg5 Be4 16.c3 and the bishop on g5 restricts Black's king and rooks)

15.Ng5 Nd4 16.Rad1 Ne6

(16...Nxc2 17.Nxd5+ cxd5 18.Rc1!)

17.Ngxe6 Bxe6 18.h4!

(Fixing Black's pawns on the same colour as his bishop)

18...a5 19.a3 a4 20.Rfe1 g6

(20...Rad8 21.Rxd8 Kxd8 22.Re4 b5 23.Nxe6+ fxe6 24.Re3 Kd7 25.Rg3 is awkward for Black but White can also play simply 22.Kh2-g3)

21.f3 Ra5 22.c3 Rb5 23.Re2 Ra8 24.Rd4 Raa5 25.Kf2 Rxe5 26.Rxe5 Rxe5 27.Rxa4 Rb5

(Black should be able to hold this position for example 27...b6 28.Ra7 Kd6)

28.b4 c5 29.Ra7 cxb4 30.cxb4 Kd7

(If 30...Bd7 31.a4 Rf5 32.Ke3 but 30...Bc4 seems reasonable, limiting the knight)

31.Ne2! Rb6 32.Ke3 Bc4 33.Nd4 Kd6 34.Ra5!

(Preventing c7-c5. Somehow Carlsen has spun a web that restricts Black's rook and king)

34...Ra6 35.Rxa6+ bxa6

(35...Bxa6? 36.b5 c5 37.bxa6 cxd4+ 38.Kxd4 bxa6 39.a4 a5 40.f4 f6 41.Ke4 Ke6 42.f5+! gxf5+ 43.Kf4)

36.g4!

36...hxg4

(Now White creates an outside passed pawn but allowing an exchange on h5 was not appealing, Black would have four isolated pawns for example 36...Ke5 37.f4+ Kd5 38.gxh5 gxh5 39.Nf5 Bb3 40.Ng7 Bd1 41.Ne8 Kc6 42.Kd4)

37.fxg4 Ke5 38.Nc6+ Kf6

(38...Kd6 39.h5! gxh5 40.gxh5 Kxc6 41.h6)

39.Kf4 Ke6 40.h5 gxh5 41.gxh5 Bd3 42.Ke3 Bf1

(42...Bh7 43.Nb8)

43.h6 Kf6 44.Ne5 Bb5 45.Kd4 Ba4 46.h7 Kg7 47.Nxf7 Kxh7 48.Ng5+ Kg6 49.Ne6 1-0

White wins after 49...c6 50.Kc5 Kf6 51.Nd4 Ke5 52.Nxc6+ Ke6 53.Nb8 Bb5 54.Kb6 picking up the a6 pawn

1-0

Peter Leko challenged Vladimir Kramnik to demonstrate how to play against his own favourite weapon, the Catalan Opening and Kramnik did just that, equalizing easily.

P Leko - V Kramnik

Sparkassen GM Dortmund (1)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 a5 7.Qc2 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 c6 9.a4 b5 10.axb5 cxb5 11.Qg5 0-0 12.Qxb5 Ba6 13.Qa4 Qb6 14.Nbd2

(14.0-0 Qxb2 15.Nbd2 Bb5 16.Nxc4 Bxa4 17.Nxb2 Bb5 18.Ne5 gave White the edge and eventual victory in Kramnik-Topalov Dortmund 2006)

14...Bb5

(14...Qxb2 15.Rb1 Qc3 16.0-0 Nbd7 17.Rfc1 Nb6 18.Qa2 wins the black queen)

15.Qa3 Nc6 16.0-0 Rab8 17.Rfc1 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 Qxd4 19.Nf3 Qb6 20.Qxa5 Qxa5 21.Rxa5 Bc6 22.Rxc4 Bxf3 23.Bxf3 Rxb2 24.h4 draw

In the third game of the day Etienne Bacrot easily held the draw against Arkady Naiditsch in a long theoretical line of the Marshall Attack.

At the 1st Big Slick International in Purley the Russian GM Alexander Cherniaev leads with 4.5/6.

Play through the Games in the Article

Download Annotated Games in PGN

Playthrough board by Martin Bennedik (bennedik@gmx.net), requires Silverlight, all rights reserved.

UK Shop - US Shop

• All material © The Week In Chess
• Email Mark Crowther - TWIC
• Email London Chess Centre