that Norway’s teen sensation Magnus Carlsen is not the new number two.
World champion Anand lost five points but is still 10 points ahead of the second ranked player — Morozevich, who caught up with Kramnik. Since Morozevich had more games — 20 to his fellow Russian’s 0 in the rating period — he is listed in second place.
Ivanchuk gained 41 points to jump from 11th to 4th, four points ahead of Topalov, who gained 10 points. Next is Carlsen who topped Aerosvit with a stunning 2877 performance, but this was not factored in the new list because the tournament ended four days after a deadline set by FIDE for submission of results for the rating list. ChessBase, however, noted that FIDE has made exemptions in the past, the latest was last year when it included the results of Morelia/Linares so as not to deny Anand his rightful top spot.
The top 20 according to FIDE as of last week:
1 Vishy Anand, India 2798
2 Alexander Morozevich, Russia 2788
3 Vladimir Kramnik, Russia 2788
4 Vasily Ivanchuk, Ukraine 2781
5 Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria 2777
6 Magnus Carlsen, Norway 2775
7 Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijan 2744
8 Shak Mamedyarov, Azerbaijan 2742
9 Alexei Shirov, Spain 2741
10 Peter Leko, Hungary 2741
11 Peter Svidler, Russia 2738
12 Levon Aronian, Armenia 2737
13 Michael Adams, England 2735
14 Alexander Grischuk, Russia 2728
15 Sergei Karjakin, Ukraine 2727
16 Sergei Movsesian, Slovakia 2723
17 Gata Kamsky, USA 2723
18 Boris Gelfand, Israel 2720
19 Russialan Ponomariov, Ukraine 2718
20 Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan 2717Game of the week. The annual Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany started last week with former world champ Vladimir Kramnik as the favorite. The Russian has won this elite tournament eight times in the past 13 years and is the defending champ. In the third round of this year’s tournament, however, Kramnik faced the winner in 2005 and was crushed in one of his main lines of defense to 1. e4. At least, according to our annotator IM Malcolm Pein, the refutation happened before Kramnik’s world title match against Anand and not during it.
Naiditsch, Pein added, “found a clever new wrinkle on move 19 in what was a known rook sacrifice. Kramnik will be disappointed not to have found the best defense but the practical problems the defender faces when confronted with a new idea in such a sharp position are considerable. Naiditsch’s novelty might have made an appearance in 2000 during Kramnik’s title match against Garry Kasparov. Kasparov revealed that he looked at an enhanced version of the same idea in 1999 but Kramnik avoided his analysis by defending 1.e4 with the Berlin Defense to the Ruy Lopez. Previously 16.Qb3 0–0 17.Nxe7+ Qxe7 18.Qxb5 a6 19.Qb3 Rfd8 20.Be3 Rac8 21.Rac1 h6 22.h3 Nd4 was agreed drawn in Kasparov-Karpov, Moscow WCC 1985; Kasparov was planning 16.a4!? b4 17.Bf4 and this is clearly better than Naiditsch’s idea as the b4 pawn is en prise with check in the critical variation given on move 19, see below. After 17…Nxf4 18.Rxe7+ Kf8 19.Re5 Qd6 20.Qd2 Qxe5 21.Qxb4+ Ke8 22.Re1 Ne2+ 23.Kf1 Rc8 24.f4 Qxd5 25.Rxe2+ Kd7 26.Rd2 Qxd2 27.Qxd2+ Kc7 28.Qc3+ Kb8 29.Qxg7 Rhd8 White is better but Black may be able to draw with accurate play.”
Whit: A. Naiditsch (2624)
Black: V. Kramnik (2788)
Petrov Defense
Sparkassen Dortmund 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0–0 Be7 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c4 Nf6 10.Nc3 Bxf3 (Black can avoid the argument with 10…0–0 ) 11.Qxf3 Nxd4 12.Qd1 (12.Qh3 dxc4 13.Bxc4 Nc2 14.Bg5 Nxe1 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Rxe1+ Kf8 17.Nd5 has also been tried but is a bit speculative to play against a world champion) 12…Ne6 (12…dxc4!?) 13.cxd5 Nxd5 14.Bb5+ c6 15.Nxd5 cxb5 16.Bf4! Nxf4 (16…0–0? 17.Nxe7+ Qxe7 18.Bd6) 17.Rxe7+ Kf8 18.Re5 Qd6 19.Qd2!! (19.Qd4 f6 20.Qxf4 Qxe5 21.Qb4+ Kf7 22.Qb3 Kg6! was good for Black, Kaminski-Howell 1992; 19.Rf5 Rd8 20.Ne3 Qxd1+ 21.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 22.Nxd1 Ne6 was equal 23.Rxb5 b6 24.Nc3 Ke7 and drawn in Kasimdzhanov-Yusupov 2001) 19…Ng6? (19…Qxe5 appears to lose 20.Qb4+ Kg8 21.Ne7+ Kf8 22.Ng6+ Kg8 23.Nxe5 but Black has an unlikely defense, he can expose his king on the central files and survive after 19…Qxe5! 20.Qb4+ Ke8! 21.Re1 Ne2+ 22.Kf1 Rc8! 23.f4 Qxd5 24.Rxe2+ Kd7 25.Rd2 Rc5 26.Rxd5+ Rxd5 27.Qb3 Kd6 28.Qb4+ Ke6 29.Qe4+ Kd6 30.Qb4+ =) 20.Ree1 f6 21.Rad1 Kf7 22.Qe3! (Nasty, the queen comes to b3 and black cannot run his king to g6 as in the note to move 19) 22…Rhe8 23.Ne7 Qxe7 (23…Rxe7 24.Rxd6 Rxe3 25.Rxe3 Nf8 26.Rc3 Re8 27.Rc7+ Re7 28.Rxe7+ Kxe7 29.Rd5 will win in time) 24.Qb3+ Kf8 25.Rxe7 Rxe7 26.Qxb5 (Kramnik’s defensive queen sacrifices are legendary but there is no chance of a fortress here) 26…Rae8 27.g3 Ne5 28.Kg2 Nc6 29.b4 a6 30.Qb6 h6 31.a4 Ne5 32.Qc5 Kg8 33.b5 axb5 34.axb5 Nf7 35.h4 Kh8 36.Rd2 Kg8 37.Kh3 Kh8 38.f4 Kg8 39.h5 Kh8 40.Qf5 Nd8 41.Rd7! Ne6 42.Qd5 1–0.
Puzzler.
White — pawns on b3, b4, h2; Qa8, Ke1, Be4, Ne7
Black — pawns on a5, b5, e5, g5; Na7, Bb6, Ke3
White to play and mate in three moves.
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