Chess

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 18:57

THE highlight of the summer chess calendar is the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Festival super-tournament, which has just got under way in Germany, running from yesterday until 12 July.

The field for the six-player double round robin is headed by the young Norwegian superstar Magnus Carlsen, with the main rivals to the world No 3 likely to be former Russian world champion Vladimir Kramnik – who will be looking to add to his record haul of eight Dortmund titles – and last year's winner, Peter Leko from Hungary.

The full line-up (in rating order, based on the April list) includes: 1 Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 2 Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), 3 Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia), 4 Peter Leko (Hungary), 5 tienne Bacrot (France), 6 Arkady Naiditsch (Germany).

While all the other major events have a "drawing of lots" ceremony on the eve of the tournament for colours and pairings, with typical German efficiency, the Dortmund organisers do theirs weeks in advance.

The idea behind this, they say, is to better allow the players to prepare in advance for their opponents.

Some firmly believe this favours Kramnik in a big way – but last year, it backfired on the former world champion, as he saw his normally reliable Petroff Defence coming undone twice as he scored only 50 per cent.

Wang Yue – M Carlsen

Leon Rapid, (1.2)

Grnfeld Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 Bf4 Bg7 5 e3 c5 6 dxc5 Qa5 7 Rc1 Ne4 8 cxd5 Nxc3 9 Qd2 Qxa2 10 Rxc3 Bxc3 11 Qxc3 f6 12 Nf3 Bd7 13 Be2 Qxd5 14 0-0 Nc6 15 b4 a5 16 b5 Nb4 17 Rd1 Qe4 18 Ne1 Nd5 19 Qd2 e6 20 Nc2 0-0 21 Bd6 Rfd8 22 Nd4 Qh4 23 g3 Qh6 24 Bc4 Re8 25 Nxe6! Bxe6 26 Bxd5 Qg7 27 c6 Rad8 28 Bxe6+ Rxe6 29 c7 Rc8 30 Qd5 Qd7 31 b6 Kf7 32 Qxb7 Rxd6 33 Rxd6 Qxd6 34 Qxc8 Qd1+ 35 Kg2 Qd5+ 36 f3 Qd2+ 37 Kh3 Qd1 38 Qa6 Qd7+ 39 g4 Qd1 40 Qc4+ Kg7 41 Kg3 Qg1+ 42 Kf4 Qxh2+ 43 Ke4 Qe5+ 44 Kd3 Qd6+ 45 Kc2 1-0