Dortmund R9 – Arkadij Naiditsch wins Super-GM

Round nine report

The winner of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2005 was, completely unexpectedly, the youngest and lowest rated player in the tournament, Arkadij Naiditsch, 19 years old (born on October 25, 1985). He is also the first German national to win Dortmund in a number of decades.

The final round is under way. Svidler-Naiditsch (left) is already over.

Arkadij clinched victory by drawing Peter Svidler in the final round with the black pieces. Svidler himself had chances of winning the tournament, but the St. Petersburg GM was very disappointed with his performance in this tournament, and when his Anti-Marshall failed to provide any advantage.

The other two players in contention for first place were Loek van Wely and Vladimir Kramnik. Both had black. The Dutch GM fought hard against Peter Heine Nielsen and looked set to win, committed an error, which Nielsen did not cash in on, and then after regaining the advantage only got a drawn R+2P vs R+P ending.

Nielsen,PH (2668) - Van Wely,L (2655) [E04]
It Dortmund GER (9), 17.07.2005
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 Rb8 8.e4 b5 9.d5 Nb4 10.b3 cxb3 11.Qxb3 c5 12.dxc6 Nxc6 13.Bf4 Rb7 14.e5 Nd7 15.Ne4 Na5 16.Qc3 Qc7 17.Qd4 Qb6 18.Rfc1 Rb8 19.Rab1 Bb7 20.Nd6+ Bxd6 21.Qxb6 Nxb6 22.exd6 Rc8 23.Ne5 Rxc1+ 24.Rxc1 f6?

White has a golden opportunity to take the full point – in fact he has two options:

• 25.Bd2 Nac4 (25...fxe5 26.Bxa5 Nc4 27.Bxb7 Nxa5 28.Rc8+ Kd7 29.Rxh8 Nxb7) 26.Nxc4 Nxc4 27.Bxb7;

• 25.Be3 Nd7 a) 25...fxe5 26.Bxb6 Bxg2 27.Bxa5; b) 25...Nbc4 26.d7+ Ke7 (26...Kd8 27.Nf7+) 27.Bc5+

However the unfortunate Nielsen, smarting from his crash from the top to the bottom of the table in this tournament, let the opportunity pass with 25.Rc7 fxe5 26.Re7+ (once again 26.Bd2 Nbc4 27.Bxa5 Nxa5 28.Re7+ Kd8 29.Bxb7 Nxb7 would have offered better chances) 26...Kd8 27.Bd2 Nac4 28.Rxb7 Nxd2 29.Rxb6 Kd7 30.Rxa6 Rc8 31.h4 Rc1+ 32.Kh2 Rc2 33.Ra7+ Kxd6 34.Rxg7 h6 35.g4 Rxa2 36.g5 hxg5 37.hxg5 e4 38.g6 Ra8 39.Rb7 Rg8 40.Rb6+ Ke7 41.Rxb5 Rxg6 42.Rb2 Nf3+ 43.Bxf3 exf3 44.Rb3 Rg2+ 45.Kh3 Rxf2 46.Kg3 Rf1 47.Rxf3 Rxf3+ 48.Kxf3 Kd6 49.Ke4 ½-½

Vladimir Kramnik in deep thought, Sutovsky-Adams in the background

Sutovsky vs Adams also contained missed opportunities on both sides and ended in a 51-move draw.

Etienne Bacrot on the way to beating Vladimir Kramnik

Etienne Bacrot beat Vladimir Kramnik in a tense 56-move battle to take third place. This result was established late in the evening, since Veselin Topalov vs Peter Leko turned out to be a real cliff-hanger that went on for 106 moves. With Etienne watching anxiously in the press room Topalov managed to outplay Leko in an opposite colour bishop ending with an extra pawn and queens on the board. This allowed the Bulgarian to join the other three players with 5/9 but take second place on tiebreak points.

Final standings

Note that according to the tie-break system in Dortmund van Wely is ahead of Svidler in the table.

• All the games in PGN

  
  Naiditsch being interviewed by Russian journalist Yuri Vasiliev

The three Naiditsch sisters, giggling at yet another question asked by TV crews: "Are you happy that your brother won the Dortmund tournament?"

The winner doing a 45-minute analytical wrapup on TV ChessBase (with host Oliver Reeh, right, and visiting GM Daniel King, left). Video links will be posted tomorrow.

Full Schedule and Results

Links

• Official web site
• All ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2004
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003