Dortmund 2010 (5)
Entertaining 5th Round at Dortmund
IM Malcolm Pein - Wednesday 21st July 2010
Malcolm Pein reports on the 5th Round of the Dortmund tournament which saw 3 decisive results.
Leko vs Le from Round 5. Photo © Le Quang Liem. | http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/2010/
An entertaining fifth round at Dortmund opened up the tournament as all three games had decisive results. Le Quang Liem defeated Peter Leko with black, his first scalp at the top level, while Vladimir Kramnik won another round of his long-running argument with Arkady Naiditsch in a sharp line of the Catalan. The most impressive game was Ruslan Ponomariov's gradual squeeze of Shak Mamedyarov.
'Super Mariov' slowly accumulated positional advantages and when Mamedyarov resigned, material was level but his position was hopeless. We pick up the game after 24 moves of a Nimzo-Indian, the position is roughly level and Black has just played 24...Rd6 preparing to double rooks. If White exchanges, Black's centre is strengthened so first he changes the pawn structure.
Vladimir Kramnik
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Ruslan Ponomariov
Position after 24...Rd6
R Ponomariov - S Mamedyarov
25.f4! exf4 26.exf4 h4?!
(26...Rxd1 27.Rxd1 Re8)
27.Rxd6+ cxd6 28.Kd2 hxg3 29.hxg3 Bd5 30.Be2 Rh8
Black should have exchanged rooks hereabouts
31.Ke3 Be6 32.Rh1 Rg8 33.Rh6+ Ng6 34.Bh5 Bf7 35.Rh7 Nh8 36.Bf3! Kg6 37.Rh1 Be6 38.Nd1
While Black unravels White moves his knight to a better square
38...Nf7 39.Nc3 Kf6 40.Kf2 Rc8 41.Rc1 Nh6
(41...Kg6 was better)
42.Nd5+! Kf7
(42...Bxd5 43.Rxc8)
43.Nc7 Bd7 44.Rc3 Kf8 45.Ke3 Ng8 46.Bb7! Rb8 47.Bc6 Rd8 48.Kd4!
White's more active king is the decisive factor
48...Nf6 49.Bxd7 Rxd7 50.Nd5 Nh5 51.Kc4 1-0
Resignation appears premature but Black is losing queenside pawns after 51.Kc4 Rg7 52.Kb5 Rxg3 53.Rxg3 Nxg3 54.Ka6 Kf7 55.Kxa7 Ke6 56.Nc7+ Kd7 57.Kxb6
or his d6 pawn after 51.Kc4 Kf7 52.Kb5 Nf6 53.Nxf6 Kxf6 54.Kc6 Rd8 55.Kc7 Re8 56.Kxd6 and this is a technically won endgame.
Vladimir Kramnik
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Ruslan Ponomariov
Position after 51.Kc4
Scores: 1 Ponomariov (Ukraine) 3.5/5
2-3 Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Le Quang (Vietnam)3
4 Kramnik (Russia) 2.5
5-6 Leko (Hungary), Naiditsch (Germany) 1.5
David Howell is competing at The Biel Young Grandmasters Tournament. The organisers have assembled many of the world's leading young players. Howell is the lowest and started by losing with white to Wesley So of the Philippines. I am baffled by his 10th move although the game is still unclear until near the end.
The line up is Vachier-Lagrave (France) 2710, Tomashevsky (Russia) 2708, Caruana
(Italy) 2675, So (Philippines) 2665, Andreikin (Russia) 2643, Giri (Holland) 2642, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vietnam)
2642, Negi (India) 2636, Rodstein (Israel) 2626, Howell (England) 2620)
D Howell - W So
Caro Kann
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Qc8 8.Nd2 e6 9.Ngf3 Be7 10.Kf1 Bh5 11.Re1 a6 12.Qc2 b5 13.b4 Bg6 14.Bxg6 hxg6 15.Qd3 a5 16.a3 axb4 17.axb4 Qb7 18.Nb3 0-0 19.h4 Ne4 20.Nfd2 Ra3 21.Rb1 Rfa8 22.Kg1 Nd8 23.Rh3 Qc6 24.Na5
(24.Nxe4 dxe4 25.Qe3 Qd5)
24...R8xa5 25.bxa5 Nxc3 26.Rb3 Ra1+ 27.Nb1 b4 28.Bd2 Na2 29.Re3?
(29.Rb2 Nb7 30.h5 gxh5 31.Rxh5 g6 32.Rh3)
29...Nc1 30.Bxc1 Qxc1+ 31.Kh2 Nc6 32.g3 Nxa5 0-1
