Dortmund R2: Anand wins heavyweight bout

by ChessBase
7/24/2004 – The gloves came off today in Dortmund, but the only fighter to land a knock-out blow was Vishy Anand. He beat Peter Svidler in a fantastic display of tightrope calculation to take the lead in Group 1. Kramnik-Leko was an interesting draw, as were the other two games. 14-year-old Karjakin again showed his toughness. Full report with games, results and pictures.

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SPARKASSEN
CHESS-MEETING
2004
22 July to 1 August 2004

Round two – Friday, July 23

Round 2: Friday. July 23, 14:00h
A. Naiditsch
½-½
S. Rublevsky
V. Anand
1-0
P. Svidler
S. Karjakin
½-½
V. Bologan
V. Kramnik
½-½
P. Leko
Round 3: Sat. July 24, 14:00h
P. Svidler
-
A. Naiditsch
S. Rublevsky
-
V. Anand
P. Leko
-
S. Karjakin
V. Bologan
-
V. Kramnik
Games – Report

The Elo-centric conventional wisdom is that Anand and Svidler will come through Group 1 to meet Kramnik and Leko out of Group 2. Anand may have thrown a spanner in the works today by beating his group co-favorite in a very smooth performance. Svidler felt compelled to sacrifice his backwards d-pawn to maintain counterplay, but Anand's king's knight was a SWAT team of defense all on its own!


Vishy Anand, the first to draw blood in Dortmund

When you sacrifice material for an attack against India's Viswanathan Anand you'd better hope you have more than "chances." The world's second-ranked player is legendary for his nearly instantaneous skills of calculation. This makes his defensive ability second to none as his opponents have to fight the board and the clock. Over the years Anand has saved quite a few hopeless positions (not that he really sees all that many inferior positions).

Anand's stirring steed, here shown by ChessBase 8's "piece path" annotation, performed non-stop gymnastics while discombobulating Svidler's pieces. It finally gave its life for a bishop and Anand was almost home free with his extra pawn. He still had a few weaknesses to cover and the queens to exchange, then it was into a rook endgame that he liquidated quickly. Okay, it wasn't all that easy, but Anand sure made it look that way.


World number nine Peter Svidler, discombobulated by world number two Anand

In the other marquee battle, Peter Leko held off Vladimir Kramnik in a preview of their September-October classical world championship match. Kramnik kept threatening to build up pressure in the center but Leko kept defusing it just in time and the draw was agreed on move 30.


Vladimir Kramnik, held to a draw by his Dannemann challenger Leko

With this result it looks like Leko will head into their match with his career plus score against Kramnik intact. It's currently at +1 and the Hungarian will have white in their next encounter in the prelims. Of course there is always the chance that they could meet in the final, although someone will have to get through Anand for that to happen!


Peter Leko, Hungarian wizz kid who has matured into the world's number five player

Victor Bologan again gave the fans and sponsors their money's worth as he tried to bamboozle teen star Sergey Karjakin in a knight vs bishop endgame. The defending champion from Moldova did everything he could but his young opponent refused to blunder. In two days Karjakin has drawn with black against the classical world champion and held against the reigning Dortmund champion! Tomorrow he will face Leko, the championship challenger.

Naiditsch-Rublevsky, position after 32...Rd8

This one was a riveting game of attack and counterattack that left the real fireworks for the notes. The German hope developed a menacing position, but Rublevsky had it all under control. His last move ignored the threat to his g4 knight with a counter against White's weak back rank.

If 33.Rxg4?? Black wins with 33...Rxd3! 34.Rgh4 f5 35.g6 Kf8 and White is defenseless. A disheartened Naiditsch bailed out with 33.Rh4 Nf2+ 34.Kg1 Nxd3 35.Rgh3 Kf8 and after exchanges he decided to offer a time-trouble draw instead of play out the endgame.

The draw left them tied in the middle of Group 1 between Anand and Svidler. Group 2 has yet to see a decisive game.

 


Participants

Group 1 Country Birthday
Rating
Viswanathan Anand India 11 Dec. 1969
2774
Peter Svidler Russia 17 June 76
2733
Sergei Rublevsky Russia 15 Oct. 74
2671
Arkadij Naiditsch Germany 25 Oct. 85
2571

Group 2 Country Birthday
Rating
Vladimir Kramnik Russia 25 June 75
2764
Peter Leko Hungary 08 Sep. 79
2741
Viorel Bologan Moldavia 14 Dec. 71
2665
Sergey Karjakin Ukraine 12 Jan. 90
2580

Full schedule and scoresheet

Round 1: Thurs. July 22, 14:00h
V. Anand
½-½
A. Naiditsch
P. Svidler
½-½
S. Rublevsky
V. Kramnik
½-½
S. Karjakin
P. Leko
½-½
V. Bologan
Round 2: Friday. July 23, 14:00h
A. Naiditsch
½-½
S. Rublevsky
V. Anand
1-0
P. Svidler
S. Karjakin
½-½
V. Bologan
V. Kramnik
½-½
P. Leko
Round 3: Sat. July 24, 14:00h
P. Svidler
-
A. Naiditsch
S. Rublevsky
-
V. Anand
P. Leko
-
S. Karjakin
V. Bologan
-
V. Kramnik
Games – Report
Round 4: Sun. July 25, 14:00h
A. Naiditsch
-
V. Anand
S. Rublevsky
-
P. Svidler
S. Karjakin
-
V. Kramnik
V. Bologan
-
P. Leko
Games – Report
Round 5: Mon. July 26, 14:00h
A. Naiditsch
-
P. Svidler
V. Anand
-
S. Rublevsky
S. Karjakin
-
P. Leko
V. Kramnik
-
V. Bologan
Games – Report
Round 6: Tues. July 27, 14:00h
S. Rublevsky
-
A. Naiditsch
P. Svidler
-
V. Anand
V. Bologan
-
S. Karjakin
P. Leko
-
V. Kramnik
Games – Report
Wednesday July 28 – Rest Day
Semifinal 1: Thurs. July 29, 14:00h
 
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Games – Report
Semifinal 2: Fri. July 30, 14:00h
 
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Games – Report
Final 1: Sat. July 31, 14:00h
 
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Games – Report
Final 2: Sun. Aug. 1, 11:30h
 
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Games – Report

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