Round 3 games & Anand-N.N.

After all games in round 3 have finished in unexciting draws, I don’t think Dortmund 2007 is the kind of tournament we will always gonna remember. Still, I was having fun today in the press room, editing more of yesterday’s blitz games and interviewing the legendary Vlastimil Hort in between (more of that later).

At some point Gelfand was an hour down on the clock against Anand, after the Indian had played a nasty novelty with 13…e5 (13…c5 was Gelfand-Kasimdzhanov, Elista 2007!). But when Vishy refrained from 18…Bxh2!? 19.Kxh2 Qe5+ 20.Ng3 Nxf2 it was clear that today he was satisfied with a draw. And that’s what Boris must have been thinking, because he could have tried 21.Qa4 Qxf5 22.Rxd6. In the same number of moves, soon after that Mamedyarov-Kramnik ended in a draw. Just when it looked like Kramnik got some advantage it was suddenly over. Naiditsch surprised his friend Leko by playing the Nimzowitsch Sicilian (2…Nf6) for the first time in his life. To avoid all preparation, Leko didn’t go for the main line (3.Nc3) and so it was easy for Naiditsch to get the desired draw with Black. Carlsen tried the most, today, but Alekseev had enough activity for his small material deficit.

Standings after round 3:

1-2. Alekseev, Kramnik      2
3-6. Anand, Leko,
     Carlsen, Mamedyarov   1.5
7-8. Gelfand, Naiditsch    1.0

And… here’s a second clip from yesterday’s exhibition: a game which we’ll call “Anand-N.N.”

Click To Play

Stay tuned, because more videos with Kramnik, Leko and Carlsen will follow this week!