Dortmund has been an amazing ride with lots of decisive games and action. The Sofia Rules may have jazzed it up or it's simply that everybody is spoiling for a fight. By round six, everyone had suffered at least one loss.
Ruslan Ponomariov held the lead with 4 points from 6 with the debutant Vietnamese GM. Le Quang Liem having fought into second place with 3.5 points. Kramnik and Mamedaryov are on 50 per cent while Naiditsch and Leko languish in the cellar.
While there's little separating Ponomariov from the pack, he's been playing very well. The top-seeded Kramnik would have to jump a gear now to challenge for first. Le has more than held his own so far, beating Ponomariov and Leko and drawing twice with Kramnik.
The Biel Festival is underway. Like Corus, it features many events including a big Open. The chief draw this year is the superb GM, billed as the "Young Grandmasters". The first three rounds have been very high on the gore factor as is expected in a tourney where 10 young GMs meet in a Round-Robin.
Biel Young GMs features Anish Giri, David Howell, Fabiano Caruana, Maxim Rodhstein, Parimarjan Negi, Dmitry Andreikin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son - most of the prodigy brigade., Apart from Le, the missing names are Ray, Robson and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Wesley So leads with 2.5 points from 3 games and Tomashevsky and Caruana are tied at 2 each. Negi has made a dreadful start with three successive losses.
Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Ponomariov vs Kramnik, Dortmund 2010) is a rare example of Kramnik being the recipient of an (almost) miniature. Black has played 15- g5, which is not the sort of bayonet attack one expects from Vlad Kramnik. Here it's just plain bad. But the simple 16. Be3 is no way to prove it.
White found the brutal 16.Bxd5! Exd5 - the hanging Kt d7 precludes 16. --gxf4 17. Bxa8 Qxa8.
17.Nxd5 Qd8. The queen cannot be exchanged with 17...Qxc2 18.Nxe7+ Kg7 19.Rxc2 gxf4 20.Rxd7 White has two extra pawns.
18.Nc7 Rc8? This seals black's defeat. .It look bad after 18...gxf4 19.Qf5! Bc8 20.Nxa8 fxg3 21.hxg3 Nc5 22.Rxd8 Bxf5 23.Rxf8+ Bxf8 when white should win with the R+2 P but the bishop pair and the well-placed Kt on c5 do give black some hope.
Now it's a steamroller with 19.e6! fxe6 20.Qc6 Qe8 21.Qxe6+ Qf7 22.Qxf7+ Kxf7 23.Nxa6 gxf4 24.Rxc8 Rxc8 25.Rxd7 Rc2. There is little point in playing on. Pono wasn't in time-trouble and its easy technically. The game finished 26.Nb4 Rxb2 27.Nc6 Rxe2 28.Rxa7 f3 29.h4 h5 30.Rxe7+ Rxe7 31.Nxe7 Kxe7 32.g4! hxg4 33.Kh2 Ke6 34.Kg3 Kf5 35.a4 Ke4 36.Kxg4 (1-0).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player
