The Chess Mind

Today's games weren't much longer than round one's, but while all four games were drawn yesterday, three of today's games saw the player with White win.

The first game to finish, Gustafsson-Naiditsch, may have featured the event's lowest-rated players, but it was surely the game of the day. Gustafsson introduced a new move in the Vienna Variation of the QGD (16.f4), and while I think Black can neutralize it with 17...Rac8!, it's quite easy to prefer Naiditsch's 16...Rab8 OTB. It's natural and logical, but it loses, and Gustafsson crushed him quickly.

The second completed game was the only draw of the day. Nepomniachtchi had some advantage on the White side of a Closed Ruy, but after missing some opportunities Mamedyarov managed to equalize and draw.

Shortly thereafter, Kramnik finished his crushing win over van Wely in a Colle (Zukertort version)/Slav hybrid. Kramnik made it look easy: Ne5, Qf3-h3, f4, etc...but it's the "etc." that took the skill. One remarkable feature of the game was that despite Kramnik's kingside buildup, he simultaneously managed to lure all of his opponent's pieces to the queenside, with predictable results.

Finally, Leko defeated Ivanchuk in his best style. Step 1: press strategic advantages. Step 2: when the opponent lashes out to relieve the pressure, exploit this tactically. Step 3: calmly cash in the winnings collected in step 2. The game went 57 moves, but it had been decided from move 25.

Standings after Round 2:

1-3. Kramnik, Leko, Gustafsson 1.5
4-5. Nepomniachtchi, Mamedyarov 1
6-8. van Wely, Ivanchuk, Naiditsch .5

Round 3 Pairings: (On Tuesday; tomorrow is a rest day)

Naiditsch - Kramnik
Mamedyarov - Gustafsson
Ivanchuk - Nepomniachtchi
van Wely - Leko

The round 2 games, with my comments, are here.

Four draws today, but they weren't too terrible. The first game to finish (barely) was Mamedyarov-Leko, a 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian. Mamedyarov devised a new idea with 12.Ne2, surrendering the extra, forward, doubled c-pawn in order to give Black a weak c-pawn which he can then win. That's just what happened, but then Leko had the last anti-c-pawn laugh. Given a choice between forcing perpetual, returning the extra pawn by losing his remaining c-pawn or keeping the pawn but giving Leko's rooks free reign he chose door #1, and the game ended on move 24.

Next up, we had a big opening surprise in Gustafsson-Kramnik. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Kramnik played 2...g6, a move which isn't exactly a normal part of the ex- (and future?) champion's repertoire or seemingly in keeping with his classical tastes. After 3.Nc3 the surprise was partially abated by his third move, 3...d5 (much more "Kramnikian" than a King's Indian), but I still suspect this is some sort of disinformation for Anand (to make him waste time preparing for something he won't play) or is being used to hide novelties in his "real" openings. (Possible objection: Anand never plays 1.d4. Reply: Neither did Leko prior to the 2004 match in Brissago, and it turned out that Kramnik was taken by surprise there.)

Whatever Kramnik's real motives, Gustafsson was clearly taken by surprise, as he wound up spending a fair amount of time repeating a Kramnik(!)-Svidler game that wound up a short, easy draw for Black. That game was drawn after Black's 27th move, and this game differed only in its going two more moves. An easy day for Kramnik, but perhaps a pity to waste such a surprise on the weakest player in the tournament.

Those games ended almost simultaneously, and it took a good while before the third game, Naiditsch-Nepomniachtchi, came to its peaceful end. This was the sharpest game of the day, a 6.Bc4 Najdorf that quickly left theory behind. After the opening a position was reached where Black's king was stuck in the center, but despite White's active pieces Black's bishop pair, strong knight on e5 and counterplay on the g-file was enough to keep the balance. White might have had a chance near the end with the risky-looking 22.g3, but preferred 22.Nd5, forcing a draw by "perpetual" on Black's queen.

Finally, Ivanchuk-van Wely was a Najdorf-turned-Scheveningen with 6.Be2 that saw the Ukranian pressing. Black's isolated d-pawn and White's extra space gave Ivanchuk some chances, but after a series of exchanges White's extra space was a liability. Ivanchuk could prevent perpetual or try to make progress, but not both, and a draw ensued.

After round 1, then, we have an eight-way tie for first, and so predictions for the tournament are still welcomed! Here are the pairings for round 2:

Kramnik - van Wely
Leko - Ivanchuk
Nepomniachtchi - Mamedyarov
Gustafsson - Naiditsch

Last but not least, here are the games, with my comments.

The Dortmund super-tournament starts in the morning (3 p.m. local time in Germany = 9 a.m. ET), and here are the pairings:

Gustafsson - Kramnik
Naiditsch - Nepomniachtchi
Mamedyarov - Leko
Ivanchuk - van Wely

I'm going to go out on a limb (not!) and predict that Kramnik will win the tournament, with Ivanchuk challenging (but maybe running out of gas); Nepomniachtchi is my dark horse. I think Mamedyarov will do well but not threaten for first; likewise Leko (but maybe slightly worse than Mamedyarov), and Gustafsson, Naiditsch and van Wely will likely feature as chum. Readers? Predict away - but do so before the first round gets going!

Ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik hasn't played in the current rating period, but will re-emerge next weekend in the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany, a tournament in which he has had incredible success. Here are the participants:

Kramnik RUS 2788
Mamedyarov AZE 2752
Leko HUN 2741
Ivanchuk UKR 2740
van Wely NED 2676
Nepomniachtchi RUS 2634
Naiditsch GER 2623
Gustafsson GER 2603

It's a very strong event (especially with Ivanchuk's "live" rating of 2790.8, making him the de facto top seed) but it's a little weaker than some of the annual super-tournaments thanks to their qualifiers & locals policy. Each year the winner of the Aeroflot Open is automatically invited (and once that qualifier - Viorel Bologan - won), along with a German entrant or two (and likewse, the local "tourist" has had the bad manners to forget his place and win the whole thing, as Naiditsch did a few years ago). Nevertheless, the presence of a mixed field of supertournament regulars along with strong but not elite GMs getting a big break usually keeps the tournament livelier than it would be if it were a Linares clone.

Play starts Saturday or Sunday (events are typically given as running from date X through Y, but usually date X is reserved for various opening ceremonies, drawing lots, etc., with actual play starting on day X + 1), and we'll follow the event closely on this blog.