Sport - Chess   

Kramnik begins in style

By Arvind Aaron

Dortmund Aug. 1. Two of the three favourites, Viswanathan Anand and Peter Leko of Hungary, drew a long, well-fought round one encounter in the Sparkassen chess meeting at the Dortmund Theatre on Thursday.

Six-time winner Vladimir Kramnik of Russia went off the block in right earnest, inflicting a crushing 31-move defeat on tournament baby, Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

GM Viktor Bologan of Moldova hit back with the black pieces when he capitalised on white's ambitious pawn sacrifice to beat Arkady Naiditch of Germany in a 63-move encounter.

Day one of super category tournaments seldom have such a start. Players are known to make a cautious start, with limited exposure to risk. Kramnik lived up to the expectations of the fans with a crisp victory.

If Anand had won, all the older and higher rated players would have begun with victories. He came close to it but signed a draw in 57 moves after six hours.

Leko defended the black side with the Sicilian defence, Sveshnikov variation. As it was part of his repertoire, Anand had come prepared and the players rattled off their first 16 moves in five minutes. Leko introduced a new move on the 20th turn and Anand paused over his reply.

The opening went off well for Leko. He obtained comfortable equality by move 30. Pawns equal, bishops opposite, a draw was anticipated. However, rooks existed on the board and Anand had the open files for himself by move 33. Leko went for an inferior exchange of rooks leading to a white advantage.

Playing under pressure, Leko went for less helpful alternatives on the 35th and 38th turn leaving the baton of advantage firmly in white's hands.

Leko surrendered a pawn on the 43rd move and was able to hold for a draw by not letting white's king bishop pawn from moving further in the rook and opposite colour bishop ending.

Kramnik obtained an opening advantage with the white pieces. The Russian opted for the king pawn for his first move which he had been playing fairly regularly since this year's Wijk aan Zee tournament. Radjabov tried the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian defence and went for a pawn sacrifice.

The 16-year-old went for a dubious looking novelty on the 16th turn, which blocked both his own bishops. A relieved Kramnik got the upper hand with a passed pawn on the queen file.

Radjabov, who shocked Kasparov in Linares with black, was in big trouble after 22 moves. His dream of winning the white queen was materialising but it was losing too. Black's pawn break on move 26 perplexed Kramnik, but it turned out to be a blunder, forcing Radjabov to resign when he was losing four pawns on the 31st move.

He pinpointed black's 18th move as a grave mistake after which black falls short of resources to defend that variation. Radjabov's choice of playing the Sveshnikov variation, which is also part of Kramnik's repertoire as black, was a brave effort.

Bologan, the 1971-born second oldest player showed his experience in his victory over Naiditch, the German who is widely expected to take last place. After equalising with black using a Caro-Kann defence, Bologan obtained space advantage in the major pieces ending. Rather than wait and get crushed positionally, Naiditch tried a king-side attack that set him back by one pawn.

After the first control, Bologan nursed his extra passed king knight pawn to win a simple rook ending in the seventh hour of play.

The results (first round): Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) bt Teimour Radjabov (Aze); Arkady Naiditch (Ger) lost to Viktor Bologan (Mda); Viswanathan Anand (Ind) drew with Peter Leko (Hun).

The moves:

GM Viswanathan Anand-GM Peter Leko, round one, Sicilian Sveshnikov, B33: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.c3 Bg7 12.exf5 Bxf5 13.Nc2 0-0 14.Nce3 Be6 15.Bd3 f5 16.0-0 Ra7 17.Qh5 Raf7 18.Rad1 Ne7 19.Nxe7+ Qxe7 20.Bc2 e4 21.Nd5 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Kh8 23.f4 b4 24.cxb4 Bxb2 25.Bb3 Ba3 26.Qd1 Qa7+ 27.Qd4+ Qxd4+ 28.Rxd4 Re7 29.Kf2 a5 30.Rxd6 Bxb4 31.Rd5 Kg7 32.Ke2 Rf6 33.Rc1 Rg6 34.g3 Rh6 35.h4 Rg6 36.Rxf5 Rxg3 37.Rg5+ Rxg5 38.hxg5 h6 39.gxh6+ Kxh6 40.Rc6+ Kh7 41.Ke3 Rg7 42.Be6 Rg3+ 43.Kxe4 Rc3 44.Bc4 Rh3 45.Ra6 Rh6 46.Be6 Rh4 47.Ra7+ Kg6 48.Bf7+ Kf6 49.Bb3 Bd6 50.Rf7+ Kg6 51.Rf5 Rh1 52.Rd5 Re1+ 53.Kf3 Bb4 54.Bc4 Kf6 55.Rb5 Rd1 56.Rb6+ Rd6 57.Rb7 Rd4 Draw.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Entertainment | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Cricket

• Graeme Smith's bat getting broader and broader
• Nehra hopes to be fit for Kiwi series
  
  Tennis
  
• Sunitha Rao at the crossroads
  
  Hockey
  
• Champions Trophy celebrates silver jubilee
• 'Wealth of talent at junior level'
  
  Football
  
• Bagan in Fed Cup semis
  
  Badminton
  
• Bao Chunlai in last four
  
  Billiards & Snooker
  
• Pankaj top-seeded
  
  Chess
  
• Kramnik begins in style
• Arvind holds Humpy
  
  Golf
  
• Amateur meet tomorrow
• Chiranjeev stays in contention
  
  Sports : General
  
• Testing at dope lab to resume soon
  
  

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu