Translated material
Kramnik's favorite place
Ten grandmasters begin super tournament in Dortmund
On Friday, one of the three largest and most prestigious traditional chess super tournaments starts in Dortmund, which is comparable in importance to the annual competitions in the Dutch Wijk aan Zee and the Spanish Linares. Many elite chess players gathered in Germany. Among those who will compete for the main prize of the tournament are exactly half of the top ten grandmasters rated by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).True, Dortmund will not have the two strongest players according to the FIDE classification. Garry Kasparov (2812 points), as you know, announced the end of his active career and is sticking to his promise for now. Although he had never performed in Germany before. Unlike last year, Indian Viswanathan Anand (2788) did not arrive in Germany, automatically losing his championship credentials. Therefore, the highest rating among the Dortmund 2005 participants is the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, who has the same points as Anand.
The key figure for us in these competitions is the last world champion in classical chess, six-time winner of the Dortmund tournament, Vladimir Kramnik (2744). Here he will again have the opportunity to fight Hungarian Peter Leko (2763), his opponent in last season's candidates match. The Magyar's track record includes two victories in Germany and success at the January “summit” in Wijk aan Zee. Kramnik has experienced a certain decline this season. Suffice it to recall a serious tournament in the Bulgarian capital, where Vladimir took an unusual penultimate place for him. We can only hope that the Russian is ready to get out of the crisis. After all, historically, he demonstrates his strongest play in Dortmund, holding the record for the number of titles won here.
Kramnik is accompanied by another of our compatriots, Peter Svidler (2738), who took third place on German soil last year. The last representative of the top 10 list is 22-year-old Etienne Bacrot (2729). The Frenchman has already distinguished himself this year, winning the Anatoly Karpov tournament in Poikovsky. In fights with a living mind, Briton Michael Adams (2719) is eager to rehabilitate himself for the recent fiasco in the match with the Hydra computer program. But 19-year-old German Arkady Naiditsch (2612), who is not even included in the list of the top 100 according to the FIDE rating, is destined for the role of an outsider. However, Arkady's invitation, which he received for the second year in a row, is still justified - there must be at least one local chess player at the tournament, otherwise some of the sponsors may lose their interest.
The Dutchman Luc van Wely (2655) and the Dane Peter Heine Nielsen (2668) will make their debut in Dortmund. Another newcomer to the competition, Israeli Emil Sutovsky (2674), received the right to participate as the winner of the largest open tournament “Aeroflot” held in Russia. This rule has been in effect since 2003. Moreover, in the very first season a sensation occurred: Aeroflot champion, Moldavian grandmaster Viorel Bologan, unexpectedly excelled in Dortmund, ahead of the much more titled Kramnik and Anand.
The competition formula has undergone changes again. Two years ago, six participants played each other in two rounds. Last season, eight chess players at the preliminary stage were divided into two fours, where they also played games in two rounds, determining the semi-finalists and those who had to compete for places from fifth to eighth. At the decisive stage, each pair played two matches with classical time control, and in the event of a tie, the winner was determined in a tiebreaker. Then Anand in the final confirmed his reputation as a specialist in playing rapid chess, achieving an advantage over Kramnik in additional games. This time the formula is extremely simple - 10 grandmasters meet each other once. True, not all participants were in equal conditions, because half of them would play five games with white pieces and only four with black pieces, and all the rest - vice versa.
The draw took place in advance, so even before arriving in Dortmund everyone knew who would play with which pieces and with whom. Today in the first round they meet: Leko - Van Wely, Adams - Topalov, Naiditsch - Sutovsky, Kramnik - Svidler, Nielsen - Bacrot. The schedule is designed in such a way that in three of the first four rounds Leko and Adams will play as white, and Svidler and Bacrot as black. So the first two have the greatest chance of taking the lead from the start. The tournament has one day off - July 13th. The winner will be announced on Sunday, July 17th. On all days except the last one, games will begin at 17:00 Moscow time (15:00 local time). On the final gaming day, grandmasters will make the first moves in their games two hours earlier.