Translated material
Reducing the distance
Two rounds of the prestigious tournament were played in Dortmund
Two rounds were played at the super tournament in Dortmund. The short distance of the competition - only seven rounds - does not leave time for the participants to warm up, which they had already reduced by playing all the games in a draw in the first round. However, this does not speak of their peacefulness, rather of the psychological peculiarity of preparing young people for games against the main favorites.In modern chess, equipped with the latest information, choosing an opening with black is not easy even for top-class grandmasters. Vladimir Kramnik had to deal with this in his game against Jan Gustafsson, who literally dried up the sharp Grunfeld Defense with White. Shakhtiyar Mamedyarov demonstrated similar tactics, vigilantly following Peter Leko’s attempts to extract a positional advantage from a problematic opening line. Only Vasily Ivanchuk could really count on success, having gained a stable positional advantage with White against Luc van Wely, but the Ukrainian lacked energy somewhere.
However, the second round already turned out to be more than “bloody.” As always, Ivanchuk was the center of attention. A veteran of the tournament and on the threshold of his 40th birthday, he still remains a thunderstorm for champions. Let us remember his recent “dialogue” with Veselin Topalov in Sofia, whose ambitions the Ukrainian grandmaster grounded with a 100% result in the first round. Then there was an equally striking victory in a mini-match of rapid chess over Vishy Anand himself in Spain. Vasily's thirst to win another supertournament and the spirit to fight that he demonstrated to Peter Leko with black are understandable. But the experience of the cold-blooded Hungarian, multiplied by the wisdom of his coach Arshak Petrosyan, allowed the successful choice of the opening system to cool Ivanchuk’s impulses. Having simplified the position, Peter delayed the opponent's king in the center, and after the Ukrainian launched an unsuccessful knight maneuver, he won it and the game.
Kramnik demonstrated good technical play in his game against van Wely. It is clear that a duel between the favorite and his own coach is not the place for theoretical research. Having offered White a seemingly harmless variation of the Queen's Gambit, the 14th world champion somehow quietly organized an attack on the king, and Black's pieces, crowded on the opposite flank, could do nothing to help their monarch.
In the meeting between naturalized Germans Jan Gustafsson and Arkady Naiditsch, the Scandinavian defeated the ex-Rigan extremely easily (in 23 moves). Ian Nepomniachtchi, who played a draw with Naiditsch and Mamedyarov, plays his games diligently and defensively.
After two rounds they are in the lead Kramnik, Leko and Gustafsson - 1.5 points each, Nepomniachtchi and Mamedyarov - 1 each, Ivanchuk, van Wely and Naiditsch - 0.5 each.