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The 42nd Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2014 is set to take place on 12-20th July as an 8-player round robin tournament.
The event is organized by the City of Dortmund and the German Chess Federation. The playing venue is Orchesterzentrum NRW, Brückstraße 47, Dortmund, Germany.
The field includes World N4 Fabiano Caruana ITA 2789 (Dortmund winner in 2012), former World Champion and ten-times Dortmund winner Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2777, the defending champion Michael Adams ENG 2743, Peter Leko HUN 2737 (winner in 1999, 2002 and 2008), Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2723 (winner in 2010), Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2705 (winner in 2005), Georg Meier GER 2632 and David Baramidze GER 2616.
This week there are three grandmaster tournaments on – the Dortmund Sparkassen, the ACP Golden Classic in Bergamo and the Biel International.
The ACP Classic is a 7-player round robin, meaning one player sits out each round.
It is a throwback to the old days of chess because adjournments take place if after five hours of play and 40 moves, the game is not concluded. The arbiter will seal the move and the game will take place on the first adjournment day.
___________
Kramnik lost to the German Meier at Dortmund in the first round:
Dortmund Sparkassen
Round One
July 12, 2014
Kramnik, Vladimir – Meier, Georg
A05 English Symmetrical, Three Knights
Adding an old fashioned thrill to the game: a few words about sealing a move.
June 21, 2014
By Lennart Ootes
Adding an old fashioned thrill to the game: a few words about sealing a move.
It has been so long since the last top event featured an adjournment that many of us actually forgot how it all works - and quite a few of the younger were never even bothered to study their chess history... So, let's freshen up our memories and go through it all again!
When can a game be adjourned and who can adjourn?
Adjournment is possible only after the session of play has fully expired. In the ACP Golden Classic this translates into "after 5 hours of play". The player whose clock is running at this moment shall be entitled to adjourn the game, provided he/she has already played 40 moves.
There is however an important exception: after move 40 has been played by both players, any of the players can decide to adjourn before the end of the session, provided he/she zeroes his/her own time and takes charge of his opponents remaining time to the end of the first session of play. Basically, this means you shall have to deduct from the newly allotted amount of time (60 minutes for 16 moves at the ACP Golden Classic) your opponent's remaining time in the first session of play. This raises interesting strategic issues (see below).
What happens when the arbiter asks a player to adjourn?
At the end of the session, the arbiter notifies the player whose clock is running that he has to seal his/her move. At his point, the player has two options: (s)he can play a move on the board (losing his/her right to secrecy) or else write the move on his/her scoresheet in an unambiguous way. Both scoresheets are then sealed in an envelope by the arbiter, and no-one gets to see the sealed move until the resumption of play.
What needs to be recorded on the envelope?
On the outer side of the envelope there shall be recorded: the name and colour of the players, the position before the sealed move, the number of the sealed move, the player who seals the move, the time used by each player, the offer of a draw (if any) and the date time and venue of resumption of play. The arbiter shall check the accuracy of the recorded information after the players agree on their content.
Who keeps the envelope?
The arbiter, of course.
What happens at resumption?
First of all, the board and clock are set as indicated on the envelope. If one of the players is not present at the scheduled time, his clock shall be started until he shows up or one hour has elapsed, when he shall be defaulted. When the player who replies to the sealed move is present, the arbiter shall open the envelope and check if the move is unambiguous and legal, and then play it on the board. At his point, if the other player (the one who originally sealed the move) is not present, the player who is present can seal his move in his turn, and the new envelope opened only upon the other player's arrival.
If any sealed move is illegal or ambiguous, or cannot be precisely established, the game is lost by the player who sealed it.
Strategic issues associated with sealing your move
Adjourning is a complex matter. After move 40, any player can decide to adjourn at any moment, provided the total amount of time elapsed on both clocks is equal to the total time allotted for play in the session. This has a number of implications. Saving time during the first session of play basically makes it harder for your opponent to adjourn, since he/she will be left with a lot less time to think in the second session
Adjourning can be an advantage, since the player who seals the move will be the only one to know which move was actually played (thus saving time and energies during the home analyses) but it is not always so. At times, you get to seal the move in a horribly complicated situation, when you'd rather let your opponent err, or when your move is forced, which basically let's your advantage in sealing slip away. This means that both players shall need to keep into account the exact timing for adjournment - by no means an easy task, and one that adds complexity to the game on top of time constraints.
Is computer aid a problem?
One of the main arguments against adjournment is that players have access to strong computer programs or that there may be uneven access to hardware/software. May we remind you that this has always been the case: had it not been for the "Geller hardware", Fischer would have probably beaten Botvinnik in their only hyper-famous game...
Today all players have access to hardware/software combinations that suit their needs. This basically means that Anand and Gelfand likely had access to supercomputers and software (plus a variety of top-notch seconds), professional players have access to adequate hardware/software combinations and even amateurs have their ordinary laptops with 2800-rated softwares.
Also, many think that a player will remember all the lines churned out by the computer, even though this contradicts common sense: anyone remindful of the Sissa legend? It is highly unlikely that players will follow a computer line for more than 5 moves, unless it is forced. And after that, they will be again swimming in the deep waters of chess...
After all is said and done, players are left with their skills (even that of devising a general plan from the computer lines) to battle out their games at the chessboard, just as in the good old times of the Golden Classics.
________
Biel with Maxime V-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Pentala Harikrishna, Alexander Motylev and Yifan Hou doesn’t get underway until Monday, July 14.
Adams, Michael - Kramnik, Vladimir 0.5-0.5
Baramidze, David – Naiditsch, Arkadij 0.5-0.5
Caruana, Fabiano – Ponomariov, Ruslan 1-0
Meier, Georg – Leko, Peter 0.5-0.5
Caruana leads now with two wins and a pretty rook sacrifice to mate against Ponomariov.
Dortmund Sparkassen 2014
Round Two
July 13, 2014
Caruana, Fabiano – Ponomariov, Ruslan
C42 Petrov, Nimzowitsch Attack
Nepomniachtchi, Ian – So, Wesley 0-1
Sutovsky, Emil – Jobava, Baadur 1-0
Vocaturo, Daniele – Almasi, Zoltan (adjourned)
Wesley So won his game and I am told that his rating is now 2750.5 and he is world’s no. 14
ACP Gold Classic 2014
Round Two
July 13, 2014
Nepomniachtchi, Ian – So, Wesley
A18, English, Mikenas-Carls, Flohr Variation
There was no chess yesterday. It was a rest day after only two rounds!
Today, the first few games were draws:
Naiditsch, Arkadij – Caruana, Fabiano 0.5-0.5
Leko, Peter – Adams, Michael 0.5-0.5
Ponomariov, Ruslan – Meier 0.5-0.5
The game between Kramnik and Baramidze started with a dangerous looking attack for White on the kingside. However, Baramidze held off the attacks and simplified. In the end it was Kramnik who had to fight for the draw. The game lasted more than five hours, ending with K and b pawn for White against K and N for Black – a theoretical draw in all variations.
Baramidze said, “It was an interesting game. At first I was under pressure but was able to solve the problems at the board. The result gives me a boost because I have already lost two games due to carelessness. In a field of this class, you cannot afford to make any mistakes.”
David Baramidze was born in Soviet Georgia in 1988 and has lived in Germany since 1998. The Baramidze family stayed for some time in Dortmund, where David went through the school of chess the same way Arkadij Naiditsch did.
You might remember at the World Cup 2007, in Khanty-Mansisk, he beat Nigel Short in the first round but got knocked out by the Cuban Leinier Dominguez in the second.
Dortmund 2014
Round Three
July 15, 2014
Kramnik, Vladimir – Baramidze, David
E07 Catalan, Closed, Botvinnik Variation
Adams, Michael – Ponomariov, Ruslan 0.5-0.5
Baramidze, David – Leko, Peter 0.5-0.5
Caruana, Fabiano - Meier, Georg 1-0
Naiditsch, Arkadij - Kramnik, Vladimir 0.5-0.5
Dortmund 2014
Round Four
July 16, 2014
Caruana, Fabiano – Meier, Georg
C11 French, Steinitz, Boleslavsky Variation
After four rounds of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Fabiano Caruana is in the sole lead with 3.5 points. Behind him is Arkadij Naiditsch with 2.5 points.
Today Caruana defeated Georg Meier in a French Defence. In a sharp game Meier attacked on the queenside, while Caruana attacked on the kingside. On the 37th move, Meier blundered and Caruana garnered the point.
His performance is at a 3000 plus level and is now third on the live ratings list (2797.5) ahead of Grischuk.
Multi-Dortmund winner Vladimir Kramnik has not yet found his feet. After his first round defeat against Georg Meier he has had three draws. Today he shared the point with Arkady Naiditsch, who had no trouble in a Ruy Lopez and reached a draw after 47 moves.
The other two games ended in draws.
After four rounds: 1 Caruana 3.5 points; 2 Naiditsch 2.5; 3 -5. Adams, Leko, Meier at 2.0; 6 -7. Kramnik, Ponomariov 1.5; 8 Baramidze 1.0
_______
Vlastimil Hort came in from Cologne. He celebrates his 70th birthday this year. He opened the fourth round on the board of Naiditsch-Kramnik.
There is a marvelous story in Wikipedia about Hort’s sportsmanship during the Candidate’s match with Spassky in 1977-78:
“Hort's long-standing reputation as one of the great sportsmen of chess was enhanced by an event during this match. During the latter stages of the competition, Spassky fell ill and was unable to play. During Candidates matches, each player was allotted a fixed number of rest days to accommodate such situations, but Spassky exhausted his entire allocation of time-outs yet was still unable to compete. At this point Hort could have claimed the match won by forfeit; however, he offered Spassky one of his own time-outs so that the ex-champion could complete his recovery. Spassky did so and went on to win the match by the narrowest possible margin, eliminating Hort from that Candidates cycle.
In the penultimate game of the match Hort had established a clearly winning position, but forgot about the clock, and sat thinking until his time elapsed, handing the win to Spassky. With a draw in the next and final game, Spassky won the match.
The following day Hort gave what was then a world record simultaneous exhibition in which he took on over 600 opponents. He explained that he gave the exhibition in order to get the loss against Spassky out of his head.”
Vladimir Kramnik – Fabiano Caruana 0.5-0.5
Peter Leko – Arkady Naiditsch 1-0
Georg Meier – Michael Adams 0.5-0.5
Ruslan Ponomariov – David Baramidze 0.5-0.5
Five rounds of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting have been played and Fabiano Caruana stands alone at the top with 4.0 points, followed by Peter Leko with 3.0. The Hungarian won today against Arkady Naiditsch and changed places with him in the overall standings. Adams, Naiditsch, Meier all 2.5/5; Kramnik, Ponomariov 2.0/5 and Baramidze with 1.5/5.
_______
(chessbase) Ruslan Ponomariov was completely winning in his game against David Baramidze, and by all means should have reeled in the full point. The Ukrainian was clearly having an off-day since even after squandering the advantage, he reached a huge position ten moves later, only to throw it away, and they ended up splitting the point. The game is given below because at move 65. White could have promoted to queen, bishop, rook or knight and chose another white squared bishop to draw. A little chess humour there.
Georg Meier and Michael Adams played a sideline of the Slav, and although the English grandmaster had chances to achieve a very strong advantage, and certainly had good chances in the endgame, was unable to capitalize and they drew.
In the game of the day Kramnik met Caruana.
Kramnik came with a large thermos flask and lots of determination to the board and opened the game with his d-pawn. A Grunfeld Indian game led to a queen and knight final, in which no one was able to achieve a decisive advantage. After 44 moves the draw was agreed. The computer showed that there was not even one suboptimal move by either player. With only 2.0 points Vladimir Kramnik is second to last place and can no longer win the tournament.
Dortmund 2014
Round Five
July 18, 2014
Kramnik, Vladimir – Caruana, Fabiano
D71 Grunfeld Indian
Peter Leko won against Arkady Naiditsch, where he shone in maneuvering in a bishops and knights endgame.
After Peter had won a pawn, the victory was a technical win. Until then, Arkady had defended well, but in the end he could not prevent the defeat.
Dortmund 2014
Round Five
July 18, 2014
Leko, Peter – Naiditsch, Arkady
D36, Queen’s Gambit Declined, Exchange Var.
Baramidze, David – Meier, Georg 0.5-0.5
Caruana, Fabiano – Adams, Michael 1-0
Kramnik, Vladimir – Leko, Peter 0.5-0.5
Naiditsch, Arkady – Ponomariov, Ruslan 1-0
Fabiano Caruana won the Dortmund tournament early today after a win against Michael Adams. With 5.0/6 he can no longer be overtaken. It is the second time he has won Dortmund, the last time was in 2012.
He had white in his game and played 14. Be3, a new idea of his coach Vladimir Chuchelov, that they analyzed together a few months ago. Caruana expanded on small positional advantages to a winning position. Pressed for time, Adams did not make the best defensive moves and had to give up after four hours
Dortmund 2014
Round Six
July 19, 2014
Caruana, Fabiano – Adams, Michael
C67 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence, Open Variation
Arkady Naiditsch defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in a Ruy after five and a half hours.
In the other matches of the day, there was no winner. Vladimir Kramnik played with white against Peter Leko and developed attack opportunities on the kingside. However, the Hungarian Grandmaster defended himself prudently and simplified the position. Only after same colored bishops and pawns were left on the board and the time control was over did both players agreed to a draw. The statisticians found that Kramnik and Leko had played their 111th game against each other today! - With 3.5 points Peter Leko and Arkady Naiditsch lie second and third in the standings. Meier is fourth with 3.0, Adams and Kramnik fifth and sixth with 2.5, Ponomariov and Baramidze joint seventh and eighth with 2.0
___________
There is a long and interesting interview that Evgeny Atarov made with Fabiano Caruana in 2012 available at:
Evgeny Atarov: Fabiano, do you remember the day you were introduced to chess and… do you regret at all today that you devoted yourself to this game?
Fabiano Caruana: I learned to play quite late, when I’d just finished primary school. At the time I was about 10 years old…
It happened completely by accident. My mobile phone turned out to have chess on it, and I was curious what kind of a game it was – so I learned the rules. At first it was just a distraction, but I got so gripped by it that only two years later, when I was 12, I started my professional chess career.
E.A..: A professional career at age 12?! Surely you’re exaggerating?
F.C.: No, by age 12 I was already working constantly and I began travelling to tournaments, so I don’t think it’s an exaggeration. It all happened quickly for me.
Е.А.: What else were you keen on in those years?
F.C.: As far as I recall I always did a lot of sport. Above all, that was squash, and also tennis. But that was all many, many years ago…
Е.А.: What was it that so attracted you to chess and made you choose it?
F.C.: It’s a very complex game. You can spend twenty years in a row studying it, but all the time you keep finding weaknesses in your play and constantly improving. I like to grow and learn new things… The more you learn the more you want to learn!
And if you take a close look at the strongest players it’s evident that among them are both players over 40 and very young guys… You can quickly achieve success in chess, but from some point onwards it becomes difficult to grow.
Е.А.: It used to be thought that chess teaches patience and you need to grow gradually!
F.C.: The appearance of computers has dramatically altered the situation. Now you can make progress quite quickly: on account of talent and constant study. But, after rising to a certain level, it becomes very, very hard to become stronger.
Е.А.: Do you feel the need to play and study constantly?
F.C.: Above all – to play! I can say that I get great pleasure from the feeling of rivalry. Training now involves a huge amount of work with computers, where you have to be the creative one. The machine is good at refuting, but you need to create yourself. What I like most is the process of playing, as my opponent and I are on a level playing field: he thinks up something, I think up something…
Е.А.: What goal do you set yourself when you sit down at the board: do you want to get pleasure from playing or to win a game and get a point on the score table?!
F.C.: For me chess is a struggle. Above all, I want to win. Of course I like it when I manage to create something special on the board: a beautiful idea or something it’ll be possible to look back on with pleasure…
Е.А.: I haven’t followed chess life for a few years, but frankly I was amazed when I unexpectedly discovered an Italian chess player in the Top 100 list, and then higher and higher.
F.C.: I don’t have an answer. That’s probably also because I wasn’t born in Italy and I’m still only learning about my historical homeland. It should be noted, however, that there’s a real cult of sport in Italy, with many strong athletes in various sports.
Е.А.: Before you there was a phenomenon in modern chess – Anand, who also grew into an outstanding player in a country without a serious chess tradition… What was it about you that made you decide to become a professional chess player at the age of 12?
F.C.: As I said before, at first I simply played for fun, but then I started to get better and better at it, and I thought: why not? I quickly became the best in my age group, and then I soon had more and more success.
Е.А.: What did your family think about your passion for chess?
F.C.: My parents would always have supported me whatever I did. For them the main thing was that their children were happy, and it wasn’t so important what exactly they did. They treated it normally when I said I wanted to be a chess player.
Е.А.: Do you have a big family?
F.C.: I’ve got a brother and sister, and they’re much older than me. My sister is 40, while my brother is even older. Each of them has their family, children…
Е.А.: Do any of them play chess?
F.C.: Only my father and brother, and just a little.
Е.А.: Have you ever played them?
F.C.: A couple of times, when I was still little. They weren’t desperately keen, and neither was I.
Е.А.: Nevertheless, many consider your father to be obsessed with his son’s career…
F.C.: I think that’s an exaggeration. My father really has done a lot for me and my development as a chess player, but I wouldn’t call him obsessed.
Е.А.: But isn’t travelling overseas for your career – first to Spain and then to Hungary – obsessive? You won’t find many such parents…
F.C.: My parents really wanted to help me fulfil my potential, and I’m grateful to them.
Е.А.: And what was your first step when you decided to become a chess professional?
F.C.: We realised that in order to succeed it was necessary to study a lot. At that point I didn’t fully understand what I needed. At first I tried to work on my own: using books and journals, and I spent many hours a day at the board.
I think that was a very important stage and I acquired the habit of working. Then I started to study with Bruce Pandolfini and Miron Sher – that was still in the States. Then I had a whole series of coaches, and I picked something up from each of them…
In the last two years I’ve been working closely and constantly with Vladimir Chuchelov. I’m very glad that I managed to persuade him to work with me and I hope we’ll work together for a long time to come. He’s a wonderful coach who knows a lot and is capable of inspiring you.
Е.А.: Do you have a chess idol?
F.C.: It’s hard to say… There are lots of strong players whose games I’ve studied. It’s not so easy to choose. Probably the ones who made the strongest impression on me were Kasparov and Fischer. I think they’re the two greatest players in history. I still know a lot of their games by heart, and I enjoy discovering something new.
Adams, Michael – Baramidze, David 1-0
Leko, Peter – Caruana, Fabiano 0.5-0.5
Meier, Georg – Naiditsch, Arkady 1-0
Ponomariov, Ruslan – Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0
Dortmund 2014
Round Seven
July 20, 2014
Ponomariov, Ruslan – Kramnik, Vladimir
C67 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence, Open Variation
Won Dortmund with 5.5/7, broke 2800, reached number 3 in the world. All in all, not a bad week!
Wesley So tweeted: Congrats to Fabiano. Excellent games. I have been your fan for some time now.
Fabiano is only the 7th player in history to top 2800. If he had won his last game with Leko he would have surpassed Aronian in second place by a single point – but he didn’t.
Kramnik had a disastrous tournament and now is close to relegation from the top ten (by Dominguez?).
It is nice to see that the old guard is being replaced by worthy players – Carlsen, Aronian, Caruana, Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, So, Giri and Jobava, to name a few.
Kramnik had a disastrous tournament and now is close to relegation from the top ten (by Dominguez?).
[/QUOTE]
Live ratings show Kramnik #10 at 2760.3, Dominguez #11 at 2760.0, and the fast charging Wesley So #12 at 2755.0. My money says Wesley will soon find himself permanently entrenched as the youngest member of the top ten (:
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