John Henderson Dortmund Reports

Round 10 Sunday 22nd July 2001

AUF WIEDERSEHEN, AL

AS the saying goes down the playing venue of the Theater Dortmund Opernhaus (in German, obviously): “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings – or at least until all the players decide to have three GM draws!

Going into the final round, the outcome turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax as, one by one, with less than 90-minutes of play, the players followed suit with draws all round to exit stage left - leaving the poor audience a little bit perplexed at what was going on at a supposed dramatic last round of the strongest tournament of the year. I’m sure the usual patrons of the Opera House wished they could get some (all!) of Richard Wagner’s operas over and done with as quickly as this.

You know the sort I mean: After being fatally stabbed, somebody decides to sing about it for over half an hour instead of doing the decent thing by just dieing. However, the short draws were probably a relief for someone on stage going through something akin to his own little Wagnerian tragedy: Vishy Anand - he spent the best part of ten days dieing on stage before finally being put out of his misery when Leko agreed an insipid 13-move draw.

I couldn’t work out why Leko had let Anand off so lightly: this was his big chance to give someone a good kicking when he was down. Where I come from that’s the best time to administer a kicking, as you don’t even need to exert yourself by lifting your feet from the ground. Not Peter. Shortly after this, Topalov and Adams decided to also half out.

For a few minutes Kramnik rubbed his chin and pondered what to do. Does he go for glory like a true world champion and win the tournament with a dramatic last round victory over Morozevich? Or does he take the easy option by agreeing a draw, and thus win his sixth Dortmund tournament as he has the better tiebreak score over Topalov? Don’t hold your breath. He chose the latter. Then again, he was probably still smarting from Astana when he lost in the last round to Garry Kasparov – a result that lost him the tournament he looked a cert to win.

I can understand why it happened. But unfortunately for the audience and the extra media there to be “in at the kill”, it looked like the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry. I began to wonder how someone like my hero Alexander Alekhine - the last man to play a title match in Germany - would have felt about three last round games being decided in such a manner? Surely he would have fought on to grind out a win for victory in the tournament? These are questions that have to be answered. Unfortunately when I asked him in the press room, he told me that he doesn’t play chess!

The “Alexander Alekhine” I had the pleasure of all too briefly talking to before going on to the “strenuous” task of attending the prize giving ceremony (not forgetting free food and beer!) at the headquarters of the Sparkassen Bank in downtown Dortmund, was his son, who for many years has been the guest of honour during the Dortmund tournament.

The organiser’s once invited him because, running alongside the Sparkassen Chess Meeting, they had a special exhibition on the life and times of his father: The good, the bad and the ugly. Despite not playing, he liked it so much he asked to come back the following year. And some ten-year’s later, he’s still coming back!

Physically resembling his famous father (OK. I’m only going by archived photographs here. I may be old. But not that old.), he’s now well into his 80s, and has spent all of his life over the border in Switzerland. Speaking little English, he told me that he never got round to learning how to play chess – and blames his father!

This was because Alekhine senior was always off gallivanting across the globe to dazzle the chess public (and not to mention the public bars with his well-known drinking habits!), and subsequently was never around to teach his son chess when he was growing up. All of this led to poor Al junior despising the game because of how it so tragically alienated him from his father – and at a time when his son needed him most of all in life. Because of the divorce from his mother, Al didn’t really have much more to do with his Alekhine, though wished he had had the opportunity to have a proper father-son relationship.

A sad little tale to end my German odyssey, but there we have it. We all know what a hopeless case Alekhine was – especially later in life when drink really took a hold of him, ultimately leading to the world champions death in 1946 in Estoril, Portugal after choking to death on a piece of meat.

Auf Wiedersehen, Al. I hope to see you next year during the big BGN\Sparkassen Candidates Tournament in Dortmund to decide who’ll challenge Vladi for his title. Where, suspiciously unlike Vishy Anand who bid farewell to organiser Carsten Hensel with the ominous “See you in 2003!”, I’ll be there for the coverage – if they allow me back!

Morozevich,A (2749) - Kramnik,V (2802) [C45]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 Brave. Garry Kasparov assiduously avoided the Scotch during the BGN match last year in London, as he feared that Kramnik would be well prepared for it. 3 ..exd4 4 Nxd4 I suppose being in Germany that the Goering Gambit with 4 c3 was too much to ask for. 4 ..Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 7 Bc4 Ne5 8 Be2 Qg6 9 0–0 d6 10 f4 Qxe4 11 Bf2 Bxd4 12 cxd4 N5g6 13 g3 13 Nc3 Qxf4 14 Nb5 0–0 15 Nxc7 Rb8 16 d5 b6 17 Nb5 Qg5 18 Nxa7 Bb7 19 Bg3 Nxd5 20 Qc1 Qe7 21 Re1 Ne5 22 Nb5 Nf6 23 Qg5 Qe6 24 Nxd6 Nfd7 25 Nf5 g6 26 Bg4 Kh8 27 Rxe5 Nxe5 28 Nd4 1–0 Morozevich,A-Balashov,Y/St Petersburg 1993/CBM 13 ..Bh3N

13 ..0–0 14 Nc3 Qf5 15 d5 Qd7 16 Ne4 b6 17 Bd4 f6 18 Bf3 Bb7 19 Nc3 Kh8 20 Bg4 f5 21 Bf3 c5 ½–½ Olsson,K-Lukacs,P/Budapest 1993/EXT 97

14 Bf3 Qf5 15 Re1 15 Bxb7? Rb8 16 Qa4+ Qd7! 17 Qxa7 0–0 18 Bg2 Bxg2 19 Kxg2 Rxb2 and white's in deep trouble. 15 ..d5 16 Qb3 0–0 Virtually guaranteeing the draw. If Kramnik had to play for a win, then he would have to risk castling queenside - taking in the process what Morozevich can throw at him - and try to win the ending with his extra pawn. 17 Nc3 c6 18 Qxb7 Rfb8 19 Qc7 Qf6 Probably still smarting after his last round defeat at Astana to Kasparov where he lost the tournament, Kramnik decides this time to have the easy life. If he was brave, then he had the better of it with 19 ..Rxb2!? 20 Nd1!? Rd2 21 Rxe7 Qd3 22 Ne3 (22 Re3?? Qf1#!) 22 ..Nxe7 23 Qxe7 Qxd4 24 Re1 h6 ½–½

Topalov,V (2711) - Adams,M (2744) [C42]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 0–0 Be7 8 c4 Nb4 9 Re1 Nxd3 10 Qxd3 c6 11 cxd5 cxd5 12 Qb5+ Qd7 13 Qb3 0–0 14 Nc3 Nxc3 15 bxc3 Rd8 16 Ba3 This is a well-worn path of the Petroff for Topalov: he's had this position against both Anand and Kramnik in the past. 16 ..Bf6 17 Re3

17 ..Qc7N

Rather than defend the pawn as Kramnik did, Adams decides to gambit it for active piece play. 17 ..Qc6 18 Be7 Re8 19 Rae1 Bxe7 20 Rxe7 Bd7 21 h3 f6 22 Qa3 a6 23 Nd2 Rxe7 24 Rxe7 Re8 25 Nf1 Rxe7 26 Qxe7 Qe6 27 Qd8+ Qe8 28 Qb6 Bc6 29 Ne3 h5 30 Qc7 Qe4 31 g3 Qb1+ 32 Kg2 Bb5 33 Qc8+ Kh7 34 Qf5+ Qxf5 35 Nxf5 g6 36 Ne3 g5 37 h4 Kg6 38 f3 Bc6 39 Kf2 Kf7 40 a3 Ke6 41 Ke2 Bb5+ 42 Kd2 Bc6 43 Kc2 Ba4+ 44 Kb2 Bb5 45 Kc2 Be2 46 f4 gxh4 47 gxh4 Bb5 48 Kb3 Bd3 49 Kb4 b6 50 Kb3 ½–½ Topalov,V-Kramnik,V/Las Vegas 1999/CBM 72. 18 Qxd5 Be6 19 Qb5 h6 20 h3 Rac8 21 Qb2 b6 22 Rae1 Qc4 It's obvious that white is never going to make anything of his extra pawn. 23 R1e2 Qa4 24 Kh2 Rd5 25 Bb4 ½–½

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk

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