Kramnik, Anand Win Dortmund
Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand finished with 6 points each to tie for first at Dortmund. Kramnik takes first on tiebreaks.
In Round 9, Kramnik drew Khalifman while Anand beat Huebner, leaving both of them in a tie for first with 6 points. Leko pressed hard for a win against Junior 6 but it backfired and he lost. Adams, Leko, and Akopian tied for 3rd with 5 points.
Khalifman-Kramnik
A 15-move draw from a Catalan opening.
Huebner-Anand
After a Catalan, material was even until Huebner lost his e-pawn after 33 moves. Huebner couldn't recover and resigned in 39 moves in a lost position.
Leko-Junior 6
A 4-Knights opening where Junior emerged up the exchange but Leko had passed c- and d-pawns. Junior took Leko's 2 bishops in exchange for his rook, pushed his own passed e-pawn, then brought his knight into the action. Leko resigned in 60 moves.
Round 9 Results
Khalifman Kramnik ½-½
Huebner Anand 0-1
Leko Junior 6 0-1
Akopian Adams ½-½
Piket - Bareev ½-½
Latest Crosstable
Games in PGN
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Dortmund chess website
15 July 2000
Round 8: Kramnik Edges Ahead of the Field
With a victory over Huebner in Round 8, Vladimir Kramnik now has 5.5 points and enjoys a half-point lead going into Sunday's final round. Anand and Leko drew their game, so they now trail Kramnik with 5 points. With 2 late-round victories, Akopian is now in a tie for 4th with Adams. Junior was destroyed by Piket.
Kramnik -Huebner
A Queen's Gambit Accepted where Kramnik made threatening noises on the kingside with his queen, bishop and advanced h-pawn. With Huebner's queen misplaced on the queenside, Volodya sacrificed a knight for a pawn on f5 then pinned Huebner's f7 rook to his king on g8 with Bc4. With Kramnik threatening a devastating attack, the German resigned after only 27 moves. Kramnik takes a half-point lead into Sunday's final round.
Anand Leko
A Sicilian Pelikan drawn without incident in 21 moves. Neither player was interested in a fight.
Adams - Khalifman
1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5. Adams had an extra c-pawn but Khalifman managed to capture it. Then Anand won a passed a-pawn, but repeated his rook checks against Khalifman's king for the draw in 43 moves.
Junior 6 - Piket
Piket played the Modern and left his king in the center. Junior castled long and Piket threw his queenside pawns forward backed up by virtually all his pieces. Using this well-known anti-computer strategy to perfection, Junior never stood a chance. Piket broke through with a bishop sack for a pawn on a3 and it was over in 34 moves.
Bareev - Akopian
A Nimzo-Indian. Bareev won the exchange while Akopian had a passed a-pawn as compensation. After Bareev won the a-pawn at move 38, it seemed he could do no worse than draw. But Akopian kept harrying Bareev's king with his queen and rook. Akopian won Bareev's e-pawn with his bishop and threatened mate on h1. Bareev had to give the exchange back, but Akopian didn't take it because he won a rook outright with a mate threat. Bareev resigned after 70 moves. An incredible turnaround for Akopian and a terrible loss for Bareev.
Round 8 Results
Anand Leko ½-½
Kramnik - Huebner 1-0
Adams - Khalifman ½-½
Junior 6 - Piket 0-1
Bareev - Akopian 0-1
14 July 2000
Round 7: Leaders Draw to Maintain Positions
All the leaders drew their games, so nothing has changed after Round 7: Anand, Leko, and Kramnik are still tied for the lead. Many games were drawn disappointingly quickly. In the only decisive encounter, Piket hurriedly resigned rather than face the inevitable.
Anand Junior 6
Anand played the Colle and got nothing out of the opening so agreed to a draw after only 18 moves.
Leko Kramnik
A Petroff with little action and drawn after 28 moves.
Huebner Adams
The queens came off early in this Queen's Indian defense. After a bit of minor-piece jousting, they called it a draw after 36 moves.
Khalifman Bareev
A Meran where neither side seemed willing to risk anything in the middlegame. Drawn peacefully in 28 moves.
Akopian Piket
Finally, a real chess game! A Queen's Gambit Declined (Vienna) where Piket moved his queen toward the center allowing Akopian to push a pawn attacking it, and loosen up Piket's kingside for an attack with knight, rooks, and queen. Rather than watch Akopian build up an overwhelming attack against his king, Piket simply resigned after 25 moves.
Round 7 Results
Anand Junior 6 ½-½
Leko Kramnik ½-½
Huebner Adams ½-½
Khalifman Bareev ½-½
Akopian Piket 1-0
13 July 2000
Round 6: Kramnik Scores Wild, Wacky Win Over Anand
Kramnik threw away his edge, then Anand returned the favor. There is now a 3-way tie for first between Anand, Kramnik, and Leko with 3 rounds remaining.
Kramnik Anand
After an English Opening, Kramnik built up a superb position with greater space and activity on the queenside. Eventually he won Anand's d-pawn. Kramnik seemed a safe bet to win easily from such a superior position. Anand's only hope was to stir up trouble on the kingside. But in defending against Anand's attack, Kramnik made a serious error. In the space of just a few moves, Kramnik lost his huge advantage, including his passed d-pawn, and Anand now had much the better of it.
But just as quickly as he had seized the advantage, Anand suddenly threw it all away on his 38th move, allowing Kramnik to win the exchange with a simple tactic. With a rook and knight versus 2 knights, Kramnik didn't give Anand a second chance and closed it out in 65 moves. With two of the world's greatest players exchanging mistakes like this, one might look to emotional explanations, such as each player trying to demonstrate to the other who is "the real challenger" to Kasparov.
Adams - Leko
The Ruy Lopez began 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. 0-0 Bc5 5. Nxe5 Nxe4 6. Qe2 Nxe5 7. Qxe4 Qe7. Adams tried unsuccessfully to squeeze something out of the position and the game was drawn in 32 moves.
Junior 6 - Akopian
An Owen's defense where the pawns were all locked up so neither player could break through. Drawn in 45 moves.
Piket - Khalifman
A Meran with castling on opposite wings. After some double-edged exchanges, Khalifman was up a piece, but Piket had a perpetual check with his rook for the draw in 34 moves.
Bareev Huebner
After an English opening, Bareev emerged up a pawn in a rook+pawn ending for the win in 52 moves.
Round 6 Results
Kramnik Anand 1-0
Adams - Leko ½-½
Junior 6 - Akopian ½-½
Piket - Khalifman ½-½
Bareev Huebner 1-0
12 July 2000
Round 5: Anand Mashes Adams' Marshall Attack
Vishy Anand defeated Michael Adams and is now the sole leader with 4 points after 5 rounds. Kramnik rebounded by short-circuiting Junior 6.
Anand-Adams
Anand came well-prepared for Adams' Marshall attack, forcing him to take a lot of time figuring out how to proceed in a d3 variation. The Madras Express emerged from the opening with a 2-pawn edge with no compensation for black. Adams resigned after 45 moves.
Kramnik-Junior 6
Vladimir Kramnik chose an anti-computer opening: the Stonewall attack. Throwing his kingside pawns forward supported by most of his pieces, Kramnik had Junior sweating bullets early. With his pieces bearing down on the h-file, Junior tried to mobilize some help over from the queenside, but it was too little too late after Kramnik temporarily sacked his queen on h7. Junior gave up in 33 moves.
Leko-Bareev
A Caro-Kann classical with Bf5, black not taking on d3, instead white took on h7 and his king stayed uncastled. Leko emerged with 2 passed pawns in the endgame to one for Bareev, who couldn't stop them both, so resigned in 50 moves.
Huebner-Piket
A QGA drawn in 48 moves when both were left with a rook and a pawn.
Khalifman-Akopian
A French Advance drawn in 24 moves.
Round 5 Results
Kramnik Junior 6 1-0
Anand Adams 1-0
Leko Bareev 1-0
Huebner Piket ½-½
Khalifman Akopian ½-½
10 July 2000
Round 4: Adams Shocks Kramnik
Michael Adams crunched Kramnik and is now tied for the lead with Anand. Both have 3 points. All other games were drawn.
Adams-Kramnik
The game began as a Rossolimo Sicilian: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6. The Englishman started some trouble on the kingside, forcing Kramnik to move his kingside pawns forward, causing some weakness there. After the time control, Kramnik worked on the d-file with a queen-rook battery and a strong knight at d4. Adams took the knight with his bishop, intending to then place his own steed at f5 to keep his advantage. Instead of retaking the bishop with a pawn, Kramnik decided to take Adams' knight with his own bishop, obviously worried about its future outpost on f5. But this resulted in the immediate loss of a piece as Adams took a pawn with his bishop attacking the black queen. When she moved, Adams picked off Kramnik's bishop and defended against the black attack. Kramnik resigned in 50 moves. This was apparently his first loss in 18 months. Another feather in the cap of Adams, who is on his way to a career year.
Junior 6-Khalifman
A Modern defense, where Junior emerged up 2 pawns in the ending: Khalifman had 2 rooks, a bishop and 3 pawns; Junior had 2 rooks, a bishop and 5 pawns. But the silicon warrior couldn't find a win, and a draw resulted in 65 moves. Some nice defensive play by the FIDE Champ.
Piket-Leko
An English opening where Leko emerged with some advantage, but let it slip away under Piket's kingside assault. Under threat of checkmate, Leko found the saving perpetual check with his queen. Drawn in 45 moves.
Bareev-Anand
A Meran with the queens retiring early. In the minor piece ending, Bareev had a little pressure but nothing Anand couldn't handle. After much seemingly pointless bishop maneuvering, a draw was agreed in 61 moves.
Akopian-Huebner
After a Reti opening, a peaceful draw was agreed after 27 moves.
Round 4 Results
Adams - Kramnik 1-0
Junior 6 - Khalifman ½-½
Piket - Leko ½-½
Bareev Anand ½-½
Akopian - Huebner ½-½
9 July 2000
Round 3: Anand Plucks Piket, Takes Lead
Vishy Anand was the sole winner in Round 3 and now leads the tournament with 2.5 points. More short, uninspiring draws are beginning to mar the tournament. The collective fighting spirit exhibited so far can be charitably described as disappointing.
Anand-Piket
A Ruy Lopez where Piket was hurting early after a few trades in the center left him the exchange down. Piket busted up Anand's king position a bit, but then had to give up his queen for 2 rooks; Anand was about to win another piece when the game ended after 28 moves.
Huebner-Khalifman
A Meran which melted down to a minor-piece ending and drawn in 36 moves.
Leko-Akopian
A French Burn drawn in 15 moves.
Kramnik-Bareev
A Slav drawn in 22 moves after a short burst of excitement where Kramnik gave up his queen, then queened a pawn to reestablish material equality.
Adams-Junior 6
A Ruy Lopez exchange which ended in 42 moves with material equality.
Round 3 Results
Adams Junior 6 ½-½
Kramnik Bareev ½-½
Anand Piket 1-0
Leko Akopian ½-½
Huebner Khalifman ½-½
8 July 2000
Round 2: Junior Takes Huebner Deep
Deep Junior homered off Huebner to join the leaders with 1.5 points after 2 rounds. All the other games were drawn, most in 20 moves or less.
Junior 6 Huebner
Huebner played a French Tarrasch with 3...Nc6. After some queenside maneuvering, the German played 17...Rac8 then 18...Ra8, then apparently resigned after 20 moves in a position where he was slightly worse. A textbook example of so-called "premature" resignation.
Khalifman - Leko
A Nimzo-Indian, 4. Qc2 d5. A sleepy 15-move draw.
Akopian - Anand
Meran system, drawn after only 16 moves.
Piket - Kramnik
A Nimzo-Indian drawn after only 19 moves.
Bareev Adams
A Catalan. This was the only game of the day with any ligitimate "fisticuffs." Bareev got 2 pieces for a rook; in exchange, Adams kept white's king in the center at d2, applying pressure with a rook on d8 and a queen on f2. But Bareev found a perpetual attack on Adams' queen with his rook for the draw after 27 moves.
Round 2 Results
Junior 6 Huebner 1-0
Khalifman - Leko ½-½
Akopian - Anand ½-½
Piket - Kramnik ½-½
Bareev Adams ½-½
7 July 2000
Round 1: Favorites Victorious
The pre-tournament favorites all won their games in Round 1 of the Dortmund super-tournament. Anand, Kramnik, Adams, and Leko all brought home the bacon against players expected to finish in the second-half of the crosstable.
Anand-Khalifman
The FIDE Champ played his Ba5 French Winawer. They took turns sacrificing the exchange; Khalifman first on the kingside, Anand later on the queenside. Both got a pawn to the 6th for an unclear position. But Khalifman chose to sack a knight for Anand's advanced pawn, and the position shifted into the Indian's favor. Anand erased Khalifman's advanced pawn and the material was a rook, bishop, and pawn for Anand; a rook and 3 pawns for Khalifman. Anand stopped black's pawns and got his own passed h-pawn moving, forcing Khalifman's resignation after 47 moves.
Kramnik-Akopian
The game opened with 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5. Kramnik refused a queen trade and grabbed a pawn on the queenside while Akopian doubled rooks on the f-file; he then offered one of them on f3, which Kramnik had his choice of taking with a pawn, bishop, rook or queen; Kramnik took with the pawn,
then moved his king out of harm's way and Akopian had no killing followup. Akopian was down only a pawn, but when the queens and rooks came off, he was left with a lost bishop+pawn endgame, so he resigned after 41 moves.
Adams-Piket
A typical Petroff defense with a queen exchange after 11 moves, it looked like a sleepy little draw was in the offing, but they played it out, each doubling rooks on a central file. Black had a 3-2 pawn edge on the queenside, Adams had a 3-2 edge on the kingside. On move 37, Piket offered to exchange rooks and then resigned, a bit "prematurely"; apparently Adams could quickly force a passed pawn on the kingside to decide the issue.
Leko-Huebner
Huebner played the French McCutcheon. Leko had superior king position in the bishop+pawn endgame and was able to pick off a few pawns, then won the race to queen.
Bareev-Deep Junior
Bareev played a quiet queenpawn opening, apparently in honor of his silicon opponent; then sacked a pawn on the 13th move for open lines on the queenside. Junior already owned the center with pawns on e4 and d5. Bareev doubled rooks on the open c-file and grabbed a knight outpost on c5. After several exchanges, Bareev was left with a knight and 5 pawns to Junior's knight and 6 pawns, including a passed b-pawn. Bareev maneuvered his knight around to get a passed a-pawn, then took Junior's b-pawn while the silicon warrior ate a few white pawns on the kingside. Junior had 3 pawns bearing down on white's h2 pawn after stopping white's a-pawn with his king. Bareev retreated his king and knight and amazingly got the draw in 73 moves after he looked dead lost.
Round 1 Results
Bareev Junior 6 ½-½
Adams Piket 1-0
Kramnik Akopian 1-0
Anand Khalifman 1-0
Leko Huebner 1-0
6 July 2000
Top GMs Battle Junior 6 for Dortmund Crown
The Dortmund 2000 super-tournament runs from July 7 to 16 in Dortmund, Germany. The 9-round event features the participation of Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, and the computer program Junior 6.
Anand, who has shown excellent form of late, is probably the favorite.
Kramnik was the winner from 1995-1998, Piket won in 1994, and Leko is the reigning champion, having won last year.
Kramnik's top priority is the Kasparov match later this year. This may inhibit his choice of openings and will probably keep him from regaining the Dortmund title. Michael Adams is playing the best chess of his career, coming off stellar performances at Sarajevo and the Frankfurt Masters. He should battle for first prize to the end. Huebner and Akopian are likely to encounter the most difficulties and will attempt to stay out of the basement. FIDE Champ Khalifman has performed with honor among the elite this year, but he still needs to prove he can do anything more than that. The wild card is Junior 6. The top players are familiar with computers and should handle it well at regular time controls.
The Players
Michael Adams
Vladimir Akopian
Viswanathan Anand
Evgeny Bareev
Robert Huebner
Alexander Khalifman
Vladimir Kramnik
Peter Leko
Jeroen Piket
Junior 6
Dortmund 2000 Super-Tournament Crosstable
| Rk |
Player |
ELO |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Pts |
| 1 |
Bareev |
2702 |
** |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
1 |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
4.0 |
| 2 |
Adams |
2755 |
½ |
** |
1 |
0 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
½ |
5.0 |
| 3 |
Kramnik |
2770 |
½ |
0 |
** |
1 |
½ |
1 |
½ |
1 |
½ |
1 |
6.0 |
| 4 |
Anand |
2762 |
½ |
1 |
0 |
** |
½ |
1 |
1 |
½ |
1 |
½ |
6.0 |
| 5 |
Leko |
2743 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
** |
1 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
5.0 |
| 6 |
Huebner |
2615 |
0 |
½ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
** |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
2.0 |
| 7 |
Khalifman |
2667 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
** |
½ |
½ |
½ |
4.0 |
| 8 |
Akopian |
2660 |
1 |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
** |
1 |
½ |
5.0 |
| 9 |
Piket |
2649 |
½ |
0 |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
** |
1 |
3.5 |
| 10 |
Deep Junior |
?? |
½ |
½ |
0 |
½ |
1 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
** |
4.5 |
|
|
