Dortmund R04: Kramnik catches Adams

The 41st Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is taking place in the Dortmund State Theatre (Schauspielhaus). It is a ten-player round robin with six international stars and four top German grandmasters. Top seed is Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, rated 2796 and ranked number three in the world, while "local boy" former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who has won this event no less than ten times (Caruana won it last year).

Round four report

Wang Hao - Caruana, Fabiano 1-0
Wang Hao decided to steer clear from theoretical complications and he did so by choosing a Reti set-up with a quick c4. Caruana seemed at a loss on what to do, as he quickly gave up the pair of bishops and although his position was solid, all the chances did lie with White. This became especially obvious with an excellently timed pseudo-sacrifice by Wang Hao on the middle of the board: 21.Nd5! came crashing through Black's position and there was little that Caruana could do. He wasn't down any material, but he was being dominated on the entire board. Eventually a swift restructuring of White's pieces to the kingside sealed the deal as Caruana was unable to defend.

Wang Hao shunned theory and demolished Caruana

Khenkin, Igor - Fridman, Daniel ½-½
This edition of Dortmund has a fair amount of 1.d4 players. This particular game was a Catalan in which Fridman was very ingenious and sacrificed a pawn to simplify the position and obtain strong pressure against White's position. Khenkin couldn't hold on to his extra pawn, and despite the fact that Black's knights were somewhat awkward, once they regrouped it was obvious that the position was just a draw.

Leko, Peter - Adams, Michael ½-½
Adams employed the Orthodox defense, a rare sight nowadays in top level chess. However today's game showed that it is possible that this opening is simply being underestimated. Adams had absolutely no problem holding Leko to a draw. The Hungarian's attack on the queenside was slow and in the time it took to build it up Black had sacrificed a piece in the kingside and forced a perpetual.

Kramnik is always comfortable in the Catalan, and takes the time to check out his compatriot's game

Meier, Georg - Kramnik, Vladimir 0-1
Vladimir Kramnik is not only a Catalan expert from the White side, in which he has countless victories and important positional grinds against the very elite, but he is also a solid Black player in these positions. Meier chose the strange 12.Qd1?! instead of the normal 12.Qb3 in a theoretically known position, after which Black simply took a pawn - although white retained compensation. Meier was swift in regaining his pawn but had to deal with Black's increasing activity. White's play was accurate and slowly but surely Black's pieces were pushed back. White followed up with a dubious move under pressure, lost a pawn and tried for a counterattack that didn't quite work. Black's own position was solid, and after losing yet another pawn Meier resigned. A strange game.

Kramnik is in good form and has caught up with Adams, leading at 3.0/4

Naiditsch, Arkadij - Andrejkin, Dmitri 1-0
Naiditsch brought a very interesting novelty in this already unusual variation of the Spanish with 10.Qc1!? Black reacted apparently well, but when he was faced with a very dangerous knight sacrifice he didn't respond in the best way. Strangely it seems that White's sacrifice must be accepted, after which it's possible Black achieves equality. The way that Andrejkin played left him in a worse position in which he quickly lost a pawn. All that was needed from Naiditsch was accurate technique from then on.

Naiditsch has come with many novelties to Dortmund in the past, today's surprised Andrejkin who didn't reply in the best way

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Standings

Dortmund 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

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