Kramnik humbled by Ponomariov at Dortmund

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Dortmund 2010 (2)

Kramnik humbled by Ponomariov at Dortmund

IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 19th July 2010

Malcolm Pein reports: Vladimir Kramnik suffered a heavy defeat to Ruslan Ponomariov in Round 2 of Dortmund.

Kramnik defeated in Round 2. Photo © Georgios Souleidis.

Kramnik defeated in Round 2. Photo © Georgios Souleidis. | http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/2010/

Vladimir Kramnik was humbled by Ruslan Ponomariov in the second round of the 15th Sparkassen Chess Meeting at Dortmund. The former world champion was lost in the opening after allowing a stunning double piece sacrifice. Kramnik's hopes of winning for the tenth time at Dortmund took a severe blow.

Ponomariov is ranked fourteenth in the world but was FIDE world champion in 2000. He defeated Peter Leko in round one and leads on 2/2. The Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem is making his debut at the top level. He started by holding Kramnik to a draw with black in round one and sent a message to the rest that he will not be out of place.

Scores: 1 Ponomariov 2/2

2 Mamedyarov 1.5

3 Le Quang 1

4-6 Leko, Naiditsch, Kramnik 0.5

Kramnik has honed the Catalan Opening into a fearsome weapon so Ponomariov played it against him and challenged the fourteenth world champion to show us all how to play against it. I am suspicious of Kramnik's tenth move, 10...Nfd7 is standard.

R Ponomariov - V Kramnik

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 d5 6.Nf3 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.Rd1 Ba6 10.Ne5 Qc8 11.Nc3 Nbd7 12.Rac1 Nxe5 13.dxe5 Nd7

(13...Ng4 might be better then 14.Bf4 g5 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.Bh3 or 13...Ng4 14.Bf4 Bxc4 15.h3 Nh6 16.e4 with good play for the pawn)

14.cxd5 cxd5

(14...exd5 was possible but is met by 15.b4! trying to break up the pawn chain then if 15...d4 16.Bh3 dxc3? 17.Bxc3 Rd8 18.e6 fxe6 19.Bxe6+ Kh8 20.Qf5 wins)

15.Bf4 g5

Vladimir Kramnik

Ruslan Ponomariov

Position after 15...g5

16.Bxd5!! exd5 17.Nxd5 Qd8

(The best defence seems to be 17...Bd8 18.Qd2 Qb8 19.e6 gxf4 20.e7 Qe5 if 17...Bd8 18.Qd2 Nc5 19.Bxg5 Qe6 20.Bf6! Ne4 21.Qh6 Qg4 22.f3 wins)

18.Nc7 Rc8

(18...gxf4 19.Qf5 Bc8 20.Nxa8 is better for White)

19.e6!

Vladimir Kramnik

Ruslan Ponomariov

Position after 19.e6!

19...fxe6 20.Qc6 Qe8 21.Qxe6+ Qf7 22.Qxf7+ Kxf7 23.Nxa6 gxf4 24.Rxc8 Rxc8 25.Rxd7

(With two extra pawns and an active rook White wins trivially)

25...Rc2 26.Nb4 Rxb2 27.Nc6 Rxe2 28.Rxa7 f3 29.h4 h5

(Trying to box in the white king but there is an easy solution, the K+P ending is a win)

30.Rxe7+ Rxe7 31.Nxe7 Kxe7 32.g4! hxg4 33.Kh2 Ke6 34.Kg3 Kf5 35.a4 Ke4 36.Kxg4 1-0

Vladimir Kramnik

Ruslan Ponomariov

Final position after 36.Kxg4

IM Andrew Greet leads the Scottish Championships on 6.5/8 with a game to play but a Grandmaster result looks out of reach as some of his opponents had low ratings. Greet defeated GM Colin McNab in round 8 and has scored 2.5/3 against grandmasters.

A bit of route one chess from the event and it works a treat.

N Thomson - D Grant

Pirc Defence Austrian Attack

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Bxd7+ Nfxd7 8.d5 0-0 9.0-0 Nb6 10.f5 N8d7 11.Qe1 Nc4 12.Qh4 Nde5 13.Bh6 e6 14.Ng5 exf5 15.exf5 Qf6 16.Nce4 Nf3+ 17.Rxf3 Qxb2 18.Bxg7 Qxg7 19.Nf6+ 1-0

Chess Tuesday July 20th

Rarely does a player establish a 1.5 point lead after three rounds but Ruslan Ponomariov and Shak Mamedyarov have both done it at Dortmund. The pair have amassed 2.5 points while the four others, who include former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, have just 1/3.

Ponomariov was worse, then better, then worse against Arkady Naiditsch before successfully defending rook against rook and bishop. Kramnik grabbed a hot pawn against Peter Leko and was lucky not to lose against the man who drew a world title match against him in 2003. Leko missed two winning ideas on the last move of the time control, neither of them hard to see. The Hungarian also threw away a win in round two against Mamedyarov and looks out of sorts.

Mamedyarov took advantage of his good fortune in round two and defeated debutante Le Quang Liem of Vietnam who qualified by virtue of winning the Aeroflot Open. Mamedyarov created a strong passed pawn but needed to suppress his opponent's counterplay. The most expedient way to do this was to force an exchange of queens.

Vladimir Kramnik