Dortmund 2010: Mamedyarov beats Le, leads with Ponomariov

by ChessBase
7/17/2010 – The third round brought more fighting chess, though again only one decisive result in spite of the players’ best efforts. In an Open Catalan against Leko Kramnik was unable to achieve anything – in fact he came close to losing. Mamedyarov won a complicated and exciting game against young Le Quang Liem. Naiditsch came close to defeating the leading Ponomariov. Round three report.

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From Thursday July 15 to Sunday, July 25, 2010 the 38th edition annual Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is taking place in Dortmund, Germany. It is a six-player round robin, in which each player has to play two games against each other, one with white and one with black pieces. Draw offers are not allowed – a game can only be declared a draw, by the arbiter, if there is no possible win for one side, or if a position is repeated three time. The winner of this tournament will be determined after ten rounds. Games start at 15:00h = 3 p.m. local time (CEST, = 17:00 Moscow, 14:00 p.m. London, 9:00 a.m. New York). All games will be broadcast by the official web site's "Live Games" page and on the Playchess.com server, with live audio commentary, in German, by Dennis Breder (July 15-18), Niclas Huschenbeth (19-21), Merijn van Delft (22, 24, 25) and Julian Zimmermann (July 23).

Round 3: Saturday, July 17, 15:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Peter Leko
Arkadij Naiditsch 
½-½
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Shak. Mamedyarov 
1-0
 Le Quang Liem 


The playing venue in the German city of Dortmund


At the start of round three

Kramnik played an Open Catalan against Leko, but was unable to achieve anything, and ugly weaknesses in the white squares around his king seemed to ensure Leko would have no trouble holding, even a pawn down. At the time control, however, things looked critical – for Kramnik!

Kramnik,V (2790) - Leko,P (2734) [E06]
Sparkassen GM Dortmund GER (3), 17.07.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Ne5 Nc6 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Nxc6 Qe8 10.Nxe7+ Qxe7 11.Qa4 e5 12.dxe5 Qxe5 13.Qxc4 Be6 14.Qc2 Bf5 15.Qd2 Rfe8 16.Re1 Bg4 17.Nc3 Ne4 18.Nxe4 Qxe4 19.Qc3 Bxe2 20.Be3 Qf3 21.Rac1 a6 22.Bd4 Qg4 23.Be5 f6 24.Bxc7 Kh8 25.Qc6 Rac8 26.b3 h6 27.Rc4 Qh5 28.Rcc1 Bb5 29.Qd6 Be2 30.h4 Re4 31.Bd8 Rxc1 32.Rxc1 Qg6 33.Ba5 Kh7 34.Re1 Qg4 35.Qd2 Qf3 36.Qc3 Qf5 37.Qd2 Qg4 38.Bc3? Qf3 39.Bxf6 (giving the bishop for a second pawn) 39...gxf6 40.Qd5

40...Bd3? "What?" exclaimed Garry Kasparov on some vacation beach, "why not 40...Rg4 with great winning chances?" He suggested other possible lines, but preferred this one "because I am old-fashioned" (meaning he would like to protect his king). 41.Qxf3 Bxf3 42.Re3 Bb7 "and how is White going to save this?". Much easier after Leko's move: 41.Qf7+ Kh8 42.Qf8+ Kh7 43.Qf7+ Kh8 44.Rc1 Bc2 45.Qf8+ Kh7 46.Qf7+ Kh8 47.Qf8+ ½-½. [Click to replay]


Missed a great chance? Peter Leko in round three

Mamedyarov had a complicated and exciting game against young le Quang Liem. In a line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, where White breaks its kingside structure in exchange for a huge pawn center, he was able to use his advantages to create a passed pawn on e6 which combined with his strong artillery, kingside threats, and a final error of the opponent were enough to bring him the full point. With it he joins Ruslan as co-leader with 2.5/3.

Mamedyarov,S (2761) - Le Quang Liem (2681) [D11]
Sparkassen GM Dortmund GER (3), 17.07.2010
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qc2 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bf5 6.g3 e6 7.Bg2 Nbd7 8.0-0 Be7 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Re1 Ne4 11.Qb3 Qb6 12.Nh4 Bxh4 13.gxh4 Ndf6 14.f3 Nxc3 15.bxc3 Qc7 16.e4 Bg6 17.c4 Rfd8 18.Be3 h6 19.Qb2 Rd7 20.Kh1 Kh7 21.Bh3 Nh5 22.Qd2 Qd8 23.Qf2 f5 24.d5 cxd5 25.cxd5 fxe4 26.dxe6 Rd3 27.fxe4 Bxe4+ 28.Kg1 Qe8 29.Qf7 Nf6 30.Rac1 Qb5 31.Rc7 Ne8 32.Rc5 Qb4 33.Bf5+ Bxf5 34.Qxf5+ Kh8 35.Qf8+ Kh7 36.Qf5+ Kh8 37.Bf2 Rd4 38.Qf8+ Kh7 39.Qf5+ Kh8 40.a3 Rg4+ 41.Kh1 Qa4 42.Qf8+ Kh7 43.Qf5+ Kh8 44.Bg3 b6 45.Qf8+ Kh7 46.Qf5+ Kh8 47.Qf8+ Kh7 48.Rcc1

With the white pawn on e6 Le Quang Liem has been somehow hanging on for more than 20 moves. Now 48...Rc4 provides further resistance. But: 48...Rg6? 49.Qf3 Rd8 50.Qf5 Qg4 51.Qxg4 Rxg4 52.e7 Ra8 53.Red1 1-0. [Click to replay]

After losing his first game, and being in danger of losing his second, top German GM, Arkadij Naiditsch came close to scoring his first win, against tournament leader Ponomariov no less. He may have missed a possible winning line on move 28 (28.Rd3!), but the sequence seems one of pure calculation and hard to distinguish from others. He was able to win a piece at the expense of his pawns, and despite pressuring for a further 26 moves, was unable to trip the Ukrainian in the sometimes tricky rook and bishop versus rook ending.

Photos: Georgios Souleidis, Jeroen van den Belt

Current standings


Schedule and results

Round 1: Thursday, July 15, 15:00h
Ruslan Ponomariov 
1-0
 Peter Leko
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Le Quang Liem
Arkadij Naiditsch 
0-1
 Shak. Mamedyarov 
Round 2: Friday, July 16, 15:00h
Peter Leko 
½-½
 Shak. Mamedyarov
Le Quang Liem 
½-½
 Arkadij Naiditsch
Ruslan Ponomariov 
1-0
 Vladimir Kramnik
Round 3: Saturday, July 17, 15:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Peter Leko
Arkadij Naiditsch 
½-½
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Shak. Mamedyarov 
1-0
 Le Quang Liem 
Round 4: Sunday, July 18, 15:00h
Arkadij Naiditsch 
   Peter Leko
Shak. Mamedyarov 
   Vladimir Kramnik
Le Quang Liem 
   Ruslan Ponomariov
GamesReport
Round 5: Monday, July 19, 15:00h
Peter Leko 
   Le Quang Liem 
Ruslan Ponomariov 
   Shak. Mamedyarov
Vladimir Kramnik 
   Arkadij Naiditsch
GamesReport
Round 6: Wednesday, July 21, 15:00h
Peter Leko 
   Ruslan Ponomariov
Le Quang Liem 
   Vladimir Kramnik
Shak. Mamedyarov 
   Arkadij Naiditsch
GamesReport
Round 7: Thursday, July 22, 15:00h
Shak. Mamedyarov 
   Peter Leko
Arkadij Naiditsch 
   Le Quang Liem 
Vladimir Kramnik 
   Ruslan Ponomariov
GamesReport
Round 8: Friday, July 23, 15:00h
Peter Leko  
   Vladimir Kramnik
Ruslan Ponomariov 
   Arkadij Naiditsch
Le Quang Liem 
   Shak. Mamedyarov
GamesReport
Round 9: Saturday, July 24, 15:00h
Le Quang Liem 
   Peter Leko
Shak. Mamedyarov 
   Ruslan Ponomariov
Arkadij Naiditsch 
   Vladimir Kramnik
GamesReport
Round 10: Sunday, July 25, 15:00h
Peter Leko 
   Arkadij Naiditsch
Vladimir Kramnik 
   Shak. Mamedyarov
Ruslan Ponomariov 
   Le Quang Liem 
GamesReport

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