Just half a point behind was…Le Quang Liem who was playing in his first elite tournament. Asia’s new superstar won 2 games, lost 1 and drew 7. Says ChessBase: “The second place finish by 19-year-old Le Quang Liem, in his first appearance in a super GM tournament, has to be considered a fantastic result. He showed that he is perfectly able to compete with the top players on their turf, and will…soon be a regular guest at such events.”
Defending champ Kramnik could only finish 3rd-4th with Mamedyarov while Naiditsch and Leko tied for 5th-6th places.
Game of the week. As our annotator Bobby Ang says, Vietnam’s top GM proved that he belonged in the august company in Dortmund by taking down the former FIDE world champ in the fourth round. Before their game, Ponomariov had already notched a score of 2.5 out of 3 while the 19-year-old Vietnamese lost to Azerbaijan’s Mamedyarov in the previous round.
White: Le Quang Liem (2681)
Black: Ruslan Ponomariov (2734)
Gruenfeld Defense
Dortmund 2010
Lately, says Bobby Ang, “Le Quang has been training under former FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman, and it shows, for he has shot up the rating lists and is now in the top 50 of the world.” 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Qc7 11.Rb1 Almost everybody plays 11.Rc1 here, opposing Black’s queen. The text move was a specialty of the Frenchman GM Joel Lautier and Le Quang used it to defeat Sasikiran in this year’s Moscow Open. 11…b6 12.Bf4 e5 13.Bg3 Qe7 14.Bd5 Bb7 15.Qa4 Rfc8 16.dxe5 Nxe5 17.Nf4 c4 18.Rfd1 h5? A careless move, as Le Quang Liem shows. 19.Nxg6! Nxg6 20.Bd6! The Black queen has to give up its protective eye on the Bb7. Of course 20…Qxd6?? 21.Bxf7+ Kxf7 22.Rxd6 is not an option. 20…Qe8 21.Qxe8+ Rxe8 22.Bxb7 Rad8 23.Bb4 Nf4? Ponomariov’s usual tenacity is not in evidence. A better defence was 23…Rxd1+ 24.Rxd1 a5 25.Ba3 Bxc3. 24.Kf1 Rxd1+ 25.Rxd1 Nd3 26.Bd5 Rc8 27.Rb1 Black exchanges down to an opposite color bishop endgame. 27…Nxb4 28.Rxb4 Bxc3 29.Ra4 Rc5 30.Rxc4 Rxc4 31.Bxc4 I don’t know if White is winning here, but Le Quang’s technical play is impressive and he wins this without breaking a sweat. 31…h4 32.f4 Trying to create a passed pawn. 32…Kg7 33.e5 f6 34.exf6+ Kxf6 35.g3 Kf5 36.Bd3+ Ke6 37.Kg2 hxg3 38.hxg3 Kd5 39.Kf3 Kd4 40.Ba6 Kc5 41.g4 b5 42.g5 Kb6 43.Bc8 Kc7 44.Bf5 a5 45.Bd3 b4 46.Bc2 Kd6 47.Kg4 Bd2 48.f5 Ke5 49.f6 Be3 50.Kh5 Bc5 51.Kh6 Ke6 52.g6 Kd5 and 1-0.
Puzzler.
White: Qa1, Nd5, Bg5, Kh7
Black: Ke5
White to play and mate in three.
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