Top
Browse > Home / Reports / What’s going on in Dortmund, we wonder

What’s going on in Dortmund, we wonder

8 July 2009, 22.15 CET | By Peter Doggers  | Filed under: Reports | Tags:

This year’s Sparkassen Chess Meeting continues to disappoint the chess fans as two out of three games in round 6 (Kramnik-Leko and Bacrot-Naiditsch) were quick and uneventful draws. Jakovenko-Carlsen, also drawn, was quite an interesting fight, in which the tournament leader was under a bit of pressure.

The Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place July 2-12 in Dortmund, Germany. Carlsen (2772), Jakovenko (2760), Kramnik (2759), Leko (2756), Bacrot (2721) and Naiditsch (2697) play a double round-robin.

Round 6

We cannot hide it anymore under polite objectivity: the ChessVibes editorial team unanimously agrees that Dortmund 2009 is… just boring. Yet again, two out of three games were encounters between elite grandmasters who had no intention at all to go for a real fight, or so it seems. This time we can’t even blame the heat so perhaps we should consider it bad luck that two duos of friends who worked together, Bacrot/Naiditsch and Leko/Kramnik, were paired against each other in the same rounds…

Let’s just focus on the scuffle between Jakovenko and Carlsen, the only real game. At first it seemed to be following the same path, as many main line Sveshnikovs end in a draw these days. However this time White did gain a slight advantage, actually without doing anything special. For a while it was quite exciting to watch how Black would defend against White basic Bd3 & Qe4-h7 mating idea, but as soon as this plan was effectively met, also in this game there was nothing left to fight for.

Four more rounds to go, and Carlsen still leads by half a point. Four more draws is probably enough to win the tournament.

Game viewer

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. Click on the arrow under the board just once, then the arrow keys of your keyboard also work. Silverlight works on all browsers and platforms except for Linux, but this should be fixed soon. Contact us for questions, not in the comments section, please.


Sparkassen Chess Meeting (Dortmund) 2009 | Schedule & results

Round 1 02.07.2009 15.00 CET   Round 6 08.07.2009 15.00 CET
Leko ¬?-¬? Kramnik   Kramnik ¬?-¬? Leko
Carlsen 1-0 Jakovenko   Jakovenko ¬?-¬? Carlsen
Naiditsch ¬?-¬? Bacrot   Bacrot ¬?-¬? Naiditsch
             
Round 2 03.07.2009 15.00 CET   Round 7 09.07.2009 15.00 CET
Kramnik ¬?-¬? Bacrot   Bacrot ¬?-¬? Kramnik
Jakovenko 1-0 Naiditsch   Naiditsch ¬?-¬? Jakovenko
Leko ¬?-¬? Carlsen   Carlsen ¬?-¬? Leko
             
Round 3 04.07.2009 15.00 CET   Round 8 10.07.2009 15.00 CET
Carlsen ¬?-¬? Kramnik   Kramnik 1-0 Carlsen
Naiditsch ¬?-¬? Leko   Leko ¬?-¬? Naiditsch
Bacrot ¬?-¬? Jakovenko   Jakovenko 1-0 Bacrot
             
Round 4 05.07.2009 15.00 CET   Round 9 11.07.2009 15.00 CET
Naiditsch 0-1 Kramnik   Jakovenko ¬?-¬? Kramnik
Bacrot ¬?-¬? Carlsen   Bacrot ¬?-¬? Leko
Jakovenko ¬?-¬? Leko   Naiditsch ¬?-¬? Carlsen
             
Round 5 06.07.2009 15.00 CET   Round 10 12.07.2009 13.00 CET
Kramnik ¬?-¬? Jakovenko   Kramnik 1-0 Naiditsch
Leko 1-0 Bacrot   Carlsen ¬?-¬? Bacrot
Carlsen 1-0 Naiditsch   Leko ¬?-¬? Jakovenko


Sparkassen Chess Meeting (Dortmund) 2009 | Round 6 Standings

        1 2 3 4 5 6    
1 Carlsen,M 2772 +90 ** ½ ½ 1½ ½ 1 4.0/6  
2 Leko,P 2756 +47 ½ ** ½½ ½ 1 ½ 3.5/6 10.25
3 Kramnik,V 2759 +43 ½ ½½ ** ½ ½ 1 3.5/6 9.75
4 Jakovenko,D 2760 -13 0½ ½ ½ ** ½ 1 3.0/6  
5 Bacrot,E 2721 -39 ½ 0 ½ ½ ** ½½ 2.5/6  
6 Naiditsch,A 2697 -139 0 ½ 0 0 ½½ ** 1.5/6  

Links


ShareThis Print Print

Comments

20 Responses to “What’s going on in Dortmund, we wonder”

  1. marpada on July 8th, 2009 23:20

    Organizers should take into consideration the fight spirit of the players and not just its ranking, If you invite Kramnik,Lecro,Bacrot, you’ll surely get a boring tournament. Even Carlen’s victories in this tournament are boring.

    Invite Topalov, Ivanchuk,Shirov,Nakamura, there won’t be a boring day!

  2. Letterman on July 9th, 2009 07:47

    If Carlen scores 3/4 in the final 4 rounds, he will overtake Anand’s rating and be world no.2 on the unofficial rating list.

    2.5/4 will give Kramnik the no.5 rank on the unofficial ratings.

  3. jmws on July 9th, 2009 10:01

    Agree with marpada: What’s going on in Dortmund is that you have Kramnik, Leko and Bacrot in one tournement…

  4. Oak on July 9th, 2009 10:24

    Organisers should invite more players just below the top ten. The top players are too much concerned about their ratings and protect them by drawing a lot of games with fellow top players. This ensures them of getting invited for the next boring major tournament and so on, and so on. Next to that I agree completely with marpada.

  5. Ebomuche Cardinal on July 9th, 2009 10:36

    Like I said earlier, I miss Kasparov! Ivanchuk also would have graced this tournament,.. It’s really boring.

  6. Ruben Kuijper on July 9th, 2009 10:54

    Agreed with oak and marpada. I don’t even understand why people keep inviting Leko, he never plays for a win and only produces draws. I hate watching him play and I’m probably not the only one.

  7. Jonas on July 9th, 2009 14:16

    Leko wasn’t invited in in Linares or Corus tournaments this year. So that’s a good sign.

  8. Peter Doggers on July 9th, 2009 14:23

    @marpada (and everyone agreeing)
    If you find Carlsen’s victories against the Berlin Wall boring, well, in that case all I can say is: endgames can be great if you have the patience to study them.

    @Ruben
    Your second is sentence is just nonsense and you know it. Please show some respect for one of the greats of our game.

  9. Oak on July 9th, 2009 15:11

    Hmm, I did not agree completely, I liked Carlsen’s endgame.

  10. WGIFM on July 9th, 2009 15:33

    In an interview (in Hungarian) L?©ko mentioned that he enjoys much less winning a game with the help of tactical motives, and by confusing his opponent in unclear positions. On the contrary, he prefers wins in positions where it is not obvious where his opponent made a blunder. He simply strives for a rather subtle style of winning.

    One may dislike his approach towards chess and winning games but everyone should admit his deep knowledge on our beloved game. His style might not be captivating for some of the chess-fans, but by his wins (like the one against Bareev in Elista, or against Gelfand at the last Grand Prix) he should earn the respect of those, who would like to chase him away from top tournaments.

  11. pete on July 9th, 2009 17:15

    not a big fan of Leko and Kramnik …. great players no doubt about that, but that tendency towards the short draws is pretty frustrating. Read on chessbase that Kramnik’s win with black was his first in a classical time controls since 2006 against Topalov … what does this tell you? These guys don’t like to play for a win when they are with black.

  12. jussu on July 9th, 2009 18:58

    @WGIFM, I think Karpov said pretty much the same. Somewhere, no idea where.

    For the complainers, how much did you pay for watching the tournament? Or, if someone forced you to, why don’t you call your local police?

  13. Macauley on July 9th, 2009 21:29

    Bacrot and Naiditsch have worked together, as have Leko and Kramnik of course.

  14. boki on July 9th, 2009 22:19

    First of all the Sofia-Rules should be used. Has anyone counted the moves Leko played so far ? He is just drawing every game in 20 moves, only against an “outsider” with white he is trying to win. And Kramnik is just Kramnik. His comments about changing his style and so one after his match with Anand , well still the petroff defence, what to say more.

    I prefer watching San Sebastian definetly

  15. Thomas on July 9th, 2009 23:32

    @WGIFM: The interview with Leko (or another one where he said +- the same) is also on Chessbase (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5463); here the full quote is
    “I like to play in a ‚Äúclean and clear‚Äù way, and I am definitely not the type of guy who takes unnecessary risks. I believe much more in the logic of our game rather than gambling on your opponent’s nerves. My favourite victory is when it is not even clear where my opponent made a mistake. Unfortunately, such wins are extremely hard to achieve on the highest level nowdays.”
    Regarding the Nalchik Grand Prix, not only his victory against Gelfand (against the Petroff) is remarkable, but also another Petroff win against Kasimdzhanov and his overall result (shared second place). This, along with Peter Doggers’ reaction, should be enough in response to Ruben Kuijpers … .

  16. Jan on July 9th, 2009 23:35

    I continue to question why professional players should play for a win.

  17. Thomas on July 9th, 2009 23:50

    @marpada: “If you invite … Bacrot, you will surely get a boring tournament.”
    Well, Bacrot was not “invited” (i.e. picked by the organizers), he _qualified_ by winning the Aeroflot open. This means two things:
    1) Bacrot cannot be THAT boring (drawish) if he manages to win such a strong open.
    2) I would say the organizers deserve praise for offering a qualifying spot, and then they cannot be blamed that “the wrong person got it”.

  18. patj on July 10th, 2009 15:14

    from what i have recently seem of the womens elite chess tourneys, they are filled with waaaaay more fighting chess than the mens tourneys. but if organizers want to keep paying for players who consistently make short draws, go for it.

  19. Thomas on July 10th, 2009 19:06

    @patj: The average rating of the women’s #2-10 is 2551 [I exclude #1 Judit Polgar who is in her own league - based on rating and the fact that she doesn't play in women's tournaments]. So one would have to compare the level of fighting chess with men of about the same strength.
    BTW, today’s game between Kramnik and carlsen wasn’t THAT boring, nor did it end in a (short) draw … :)

  20. LajosArpad on July 12th, 2009 15:11

    This is one of those rare occations when I agree with Thomas. I don’t have to add anything, in my opinion he is totally right.

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!





Bottom