Leko draws with Kramnik

By Arvind Aaron

DORTMUND, JULY 14. Hard to believe but Leko holds a personal lead in his head-to-head encounters against Kramnik in classical chess. He beat him at Belgrade 1995 and Tilburg 1998. Their four encounters in Dortmund have all been drawn. With this background, their clash number five at the 29th Sparkassen chess meeting here on Friday was a Nimzo-Indian defence with Leko playing black.

Kramnik's 10th move followed a new move order from the stem game on that line and Leko tried to counter it by a quick dissolution of pawns in the centre. After 18 moves, the only advantage Kramnik had was in development.

Trying to breathe easy, Leko's dubious 20th move led to a forced loss of a pawn on move 25 and Kramnik had something to play for with the white pieces. Leko's defence in the pawn down rooks and minor piece ending was perfect and after he managed to recover the pawn on the 32nd move, the play became dead equal. Leko faced a good test and drew showing the full potency of his defensive calibre.

``White had no real chances,'' said Leko who surprised white by opting for the Nimzo-Indian defence. He is an expert in the Grunfeld defence. Also, Leko kept the a record of remaining unbeaten in classical games against Kramnik intact. ``He played the opening very accurately and got an advantage and I fought and equalised,'' Leko summarised the three hour 53-minute battle.

There is always blood when they meet. In the clash on Friday, Morozevich tried the obscure fifth move with the white pieces against the Petroff's defence of Topalov. The Bulgarian varied on move eight when he played an unnatural pawn move to attempt an improvement on the Shirov versus Anand game from the Advanced Chess Tournament of Leon 2000.

The central pawns were exchanged off and a draw was expected. But white's piling up of major pieces on the king file guaranteed some play for white. In a game which saw no spark till move 18, Morozevich sprang a knight sacrifice and played naturally to the strength in the position.

Having less time, Morozevich had a draw by repetition if he wanted on move 21 but he varied and undertook a mission of adventure which failed him. He missed attacking chances as well as bowed to the clock in the most interesting game of the day.

Morozevich sacrificed two knights for a rook but did not get the desired attack. Topalov used his extra time well and his resourceful defence saw him exchange queens and stay away from danger. Morozevich blundered and lost by walking into a mating net and resigned on the 40th move when a mate in one was inevitable.

In the 10-game match, Dortmund's wunderkind Arkadi Naidtich took a 2-0 lead by checkmating WGM Almira Lautier of Moldova in 35 moves with the black pieces in a beautiful game full of sacrifices and action.

The results (second round): V. Kramnik (Rus) drew with P. Leko (Hun); V. Anand (Ind) drew with M. Adams (Eng); A. Morozevich (Rus) lost to V. Topalov (Bul).

The placings after two rounds: 1-2 P. Leko, V. Kramnik 1.5/2 each, 3-4 V. Anand, V. Topalov 1 each, 5-6 M. Adams, A. Morozevich 0.5 each.

The moves:

GM V. Kramnik-GM P. Leko, round two, Nimzo- Indian defence, E48: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Nge2 Re8 8.0-0 Bf8 9.a3 a5 10.Kh1 Na6 11.f3 c5 12.Nf4 Nc7 13.dxc5 Bxc5 14.e4 dxe4 15.Nxe4 Nxe4 16.Bxe4 Qxd1 17.Rxd1 Nb5 18.Nd3 Bf8 19.Bf4 Nd6 20.Bd5 Be6 21.Bxe6 Rxe6 22.Nc5 Rf6 23.Be5 Rf5 24.Bxd6 Bxd6 25.Nxb7 Be7 26.Nd6 Rc5 27.Rab1 Rd8 28.b4 axb4 29.axb4 Re5 30.Nc4 Rxd1+ 31.Rxd1 Rb5 32.Ne3 Bxb4 33.Rb1 Rb8 34.Nd5 Bd6 35.Rxb8+ Draw.

GM A. Morozevich-GM V. Topalov, round two, Petroff's defence, C42: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.h3 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.c3 c5 9.Bc2 Nc6 10.d4 Be6 11.Re1 h6 12.Be3 Re8 13.Nbd2 Bf8 14.Ne4 Nd5 15.dxc5 Nxe3 16.Rxe3 dxc5 17.Qe2 Qc7 18.Re1 Rad8 19.Neg5 Rd6 20.Ne4 Rdd8 21.Nfg5 Bd5 22.Qh5 Re5 23.f4 Rf5 24.g3 g6 25.Qh4 c4 26.Kh2 Kg7 27.Qg4 hxg5 28.Nxg5 Rxg5 29.Qxg5 Qb6 30.f5 Be7 31.Qf4 Qxb2 32.Rxe7 Qxc2+ 33.R1e2 Qxf5 34.Qxf5 gxf5 35.Re8 Rd7 36.Rd2 Kf6 37.Kg1 Ne5 38.Kf2 Nd3+ 39.Ke3 Bc6 40.Rb8 Re7+ 0-1.

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