Semi-Final Round 1 13th July 2002

WUNDERBAR!

YOU can’t help but like those ever-so efficient Germans. After all the things I’d written about them, after all the mocking, they took it all in good heart and decided they would like to ‘treat’ me by taking me out for the evening.

Naturally I notified Interpol as to my port of call for the evening to be on the safe side. However there was no need – we had a simply wunderbar time at Haus Bisplinghoff, a fantastic chess club built around a pub on Amalienstr. Along with some of the background staff to the tournament, the arbiters and some selected journalists, we were the guests for the evening of mein Gastgeber Carsten Hensel and the little Dortmund club.

Unfortunately for my head the next morning, the Dortmund favourite of Brinkhoff’s No.1 flowed freely – both in the literal and monetary sense - all night. I should warn you now if you’ve never had the pleasure of visiting Germany, the Germans give new meaning to that time honoured expression ‘having a beer’. Elsewhere in the world ‘having a beer’ is a semi-harmless act that leaves you feeling slightly mellow, whereas here it can leave you dancing naked on the roof of a moving bus (please note that this requires a permit; ask at the local town council on your arrival).

Now beer in Germany is serious business. In fact so serious a business, one in three of the world’s breweries are based here – you can even get a university degree in the subject! This fact alone should tell you what the Germans think about bier as they like to call it. Not so much a way of life, more the be-all and end-all of it. It’s been classed as a basic food, and even some brews prescribed as medicinal in much the same way as Guinness. The high quality of the beer is solely due to Reinheitsgebot (try saying that when you’ve had a skinfull!), the German Beer Purity Regulation, a law laid down in 1516 and unaltered since, which states that only water, hops, malt and yeast may go into beer – pure nectar, and just as God intended it!

Another thing I’ve discovered that the Germans do well is chess; the game now been steeped in the German culture as chessboards, sets and clocks now replace backgammon boards as the favourite pub pastime. Take a look at the latest FIDE rating list – though do please look on their new Tarasov-free site at: http://www.fideonline.com – and you’ll discover that it’s not Russia that has the most players on the list; nor China, nor America but in fact Germany. In Dortmund, the population of the city is about 600,000, and of this there are an estimated 200,000 who know how to play chess; 5,000 of which are active as they are on the German rating system and play in tournaments. This is all related to the chess culture built around the city through the ‘Dortmund Chess Days’ as the Sparkassen meeting is know as.

Here at Haus Bisplinghoff, owned by Yugoslavian WGM Jordanka Micic, who thought it would be a wonderful idea to have a pub totally dedicated to chess (gets my vote any day), the locals wonder in and can easily find an opponent to play Blitz chess all evening. Look around the club and you can see all the pictures on the walls are of famous players and from Dortmund tournaments of the past – even the pictures from the media hype of 1991 when Leko made his debut here as an 11 year old. You’ll also see tournament wall charts and league tables for inter-pub tournaments.

In the Dortmund area there are 24 clubs, who between them have a membership of over 1,500. Through the growth in popularity of the Dortmund Chess Days, they have also built-up a much-envied training programme within the local schools. Of the 72 schools that take part in the Dortmund School Communities (kids aged from 6-12), up to 1,000 are taught chess in the classroom. The cream of the crop then graduate to the Dortmund Chess School, where each year 40 of the top talents from clubs and schools receive expert tuition from GM’s and IM’s.

Carsten Hensel

“This is has all been achieved thanks to the growth and development of the Dortmund Chess Days,” explains Carsten Hensel, who was drafted (forgive the beer pun!) in as a special consultant to the tournament in 1991. Before getting involved in chess, Carsten was a specialist sports organiser and has arranged world championship events in the 1980s for diverse events such as table-tennis and boxing, and has also been involved in the organising of major events in ice hockey, handball and football.

That first tournament in 1991 also saw Carsten meeting up with a young Hungarian prodigy by the name of Peter Leko, who caused a media sensation at the time by being the world’s youngest IM (who also went on to become the world’s youngest GM). Now, some 11 years later, Leko, who regards Dortmund as his second home (it was also here that he met his wife, Sofi) is on the cusp of going on to finally fulfil his early promise as a potential title challenger after a stunning first game victory over Alexei Shirov.

Shirov,A (2697) - Leko,P (2722) [B33]

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Bg5 a6 8 Na3 b5 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Nd5 f5 [The Sveshnikov is an old favourite of Leko who, like most Hungarians, was practically brought up on this line. Evgeny Sveshnikov himself first played this variation against the late, great Leonid Stein in his last tournament, the 1973 Moscow Team Championships.] 11 Bd3 [After his Linares last round humbling by Kasparov, Shirov avoids the speculative 11 Bxb5. Besides, Leko's last outing with the Sveshnikov only a few months ago at the nearby Essen tournament showed he would have been ready for the sac: 11 Bxb5 axb5 12 Nxb5 Ra4 13 b4 Rxb4 14 Nbc7+ Kd7 15 0–0 Rg8 16 g3 Rb7 17 Qh5 Qg5 18 Qxf7+ Be7 19 Nxe7 Nxe7 20 Ne6 Qg6 21 Nf8+ Rxf8 22 Qxf8 fxe4 23 Rfb1 Rc7 24 a4 e3 25 fxe3 Qe4 0–1 Luther,T-Leko,P/Essen GER 2002/TWIC 394. ] 11 ..Be6 12 0–0 Bxd5 13 exd5 Ne7 14 c3 Bg7 15 Qh5 [The idea behind the Queen sortie is to try and weaken Black's strong pawns on e5 and f5, and of course to threaten a mating attack.] 15 ..e4 16 Bc2 0–0 17 Rae1 Qc8 18 Kh1 Rb8N

[A new move - but one that shouldn't really come as a great surprise as it is the sort of move seen often in this line though at a later stage. According to Leko, "Black now has good counterplay on the queenside". Not only that, but it certainly ate into Shirov's time - he thought for nearly one hour on how best to proceed from here.] 19 f3 b4 20 Nb1 [ A telling retreat that confirmed that there was no ready-made mating attack for Shirov waiting to crash through: 20 cxb4? Bxb2! 21 fxe4 Bxa3 22 Rf3 Qxc2 23 Rh3 Rfd8! ( But Black does have to be careful: 23 ..Rfc8? 24 Qxh7+ Kf8 25 Qh6+ Ke8 26 Qxd6 Bb2 27 e5!) 24 Qxh7+ Kf8 25 Qh8+ Ng8 26 Rg3 Bxb4 27 Qxg8+ Ke7 28 Qg5+ Kd7 29 Qxf5+ Kc7 and the King walks to safety.] 20 ..bxc3 21 bxc3 Bxc3 22 Nxc3 Qxc3 23 fxe4 f4!

[A crucial move that holds up the White attack - Shirov now finds his pieces re-routed away from all the action on the kingside: 23 ..Qxc2? 24 exf5 Rb2 25 Qg4+ Ng6 26 fxg6 Qxg6 27 h3 with a likely draw due to the active White rooks and the weak d6 pawn.] 24 Bb3 Ng6 25 Rc1 [ On reflection, perhaps Shirov should have opted for: 25 Qf5!? Rbc8] 25 ..Qf6 26 Qf5 Qe7 27 Rc4 a5 28 h3 Rb4! [Leko believed that Shirov had underestimated this move, which he felt meant the end of any danger to his king.] 29 Rxb4 axb4 30 Bd1 Ra8 31 Rf2 [It's hard to see just how Black contrives any winning chances after 31 Bb3!?]

31 ..Qa7! 32 Rc2 Kg7 33 Kh2 Qe3 [Leko called it "just an unpleasant situation" for White. His queen penetrates to e1, after which he was "winning by force."] 34 Bf3 Qe1 35 Rc7 Qg3+ 36 Kh1 Ne5 37 Bh5 Rxa2 ["I calculated it to the end and saw that there was no perpetual check," said Leko. And he's right - the rest is academic.] 38 Rxf7+ Nxf7 39 Qxf7+ Kh6 40 Qf6+ Kxh5 41 Qf5+ Kh6 42 Qf6+ Qg6 43 Qh4+ Kg7 44 Qe7+ Qf7 45 Qg5+ Kf8 46 Qd8+ Qe8 47 Qf6+ Kg8 [ And Leko showed us all what he had calculated: 47 ..Kg8 48 Qg5+ Kf7! ( 48 ..Qg6? 49 Qd8+=) 49 Qf5+ Ke7 50 Qe6+ Kd8 51 Qxd6+ Kc8 52 Qc5+ Kb8 53 Qxb4+ Ka8 and as the Hungarians would say, 'Black is OK!' again - White has now run out of checks.] 0–1

Bareev,E (2726) - Topalov,V (2745) [A67]

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c5 [The Benoni - which for a lot of Black players has virtually lived up to its original Hebrew translation, 'My child of sorrow', thanks to one line in particular.] 4 d5 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 e4 g6 7 f4 Bg7 8 Bb5+ [And this is the line in question: The Taimanov Variation or, as Dave Norwood graphically describes this line in his book on the Benoni, 'The Flick-Knife Attack'. Call it what you may, but this line has almost been the death knell for the Benoni with the White attack virtually played out to a win. This makes Topalov's playing of it all the more courageous in such an important match. Topalov usually only enters his favourite Benoni by route of 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3, thus avoiding the critical line. His immediate 3 ..c5 must have come as a great shock to Bareev, who most likely only played 3 Nc3 to avoid the Benoni!] 8 ..Nfd7 9 a4 0–0 10 Nf3 Na6 11 0–0 Nb4 12 h3 [ By far the most popular here is 12 Re1 a6 13 Bf1 However, Bareev probably wanted to eschew any plans Topalov had with this mainline, and instead heads for a sideline that shows less than half a dozen games on my latest database.] 12 ..a6 13 Bc4 f5N [And unfortunately for Bareev, Topalov has a new plan for this line. Instead of the normal Re8 or Qa5, Black intends breaking down the White centre at the earliest opportunity - from here on in Bareev is really never in the game.] 14 Ng5? [ White really had to 'go for' it now with the pawn advance - it was the only chance to do something from the opening. Now, the active Black pieces swarm the White position. Alternatively, 14 e5! Nb6 ( 14 ..dxe5 15 d6+ Kh8 16 Ng5) 15 b3 with a normal Benoni-like struggle on the cards.] 14 ..Nb6!

[Now the reason for White playing e5 becomes clear - it allows White to play b3 in this position. As it is, b3 hangs the c3 knight.] 15 Bb3 a5 16 Be3 fxe4 17 Kh1 Nd3 [Black's easily winning now - all from the misguided 14 Ng5?] 18 Qd2 Re8 19 Rab1 Bf5 20 g4 h6!

[Any opening up of the game favours Black due to his active pieces.] 21 gxf5 hxg5 22 fxg5 gxf5 23 Rxf5 Qd7 24 Rbf1 Re5 25 Rf7 Qxh3+ 26 Qh2 Qxh2+ 27 Kxh2 Rf8! 28 Rxf8+ Bxf8 29 Rf6 c4 30 Bd1 Nd7 31 Rg6+ Kh7 32 Re6 N7c5 33 Rf6?

[A final mistake in the time pressure, according to Topalov who went over the game to the press afterwards. Exchanging rooks may have been Bareev's best hope of salvaging something from the game according to Topalov - there are possibilities of it going down to an opposite coloured bishop ending: 33 Rxe5 dxe5 34 Bxc5 Nxc5 ( 34 ..Bxc5 35 Nxe4 Bb4 36 b3 c3 37 d6! Nc5 38 Nxc5 Bxc5 39 Bc2+ Kg7 40 d7 Be7 41 g6=) 35 Bc2 Kg6 36 Kg3 Kxg5 ( 36 ..Kf5 37 Nxe4! Nxe4+ 38 Kf3=) 37 Nxe4+ Nxe4+ 38 Bxe4 Bc5 39 Bc2 Bd4 40 b3 c3 41 Kf3 Kf6 and White has excellent drawing chances here.] 33 ..Kg8 34 Bh5 Be7 35 Rh6 Kf8 36 Rh8+ Kg7 37 Re8 Bxg5 38 Rxe5 Bxe3 39 Re7+ Kf6 40 Rf7+ Kg5 41 Bd1 Bd4 42 Kg2 Nxb2 43 Nb5 Be5 44 Bc2 Nbd3 45 Kf1 Nb4 46 Bb1 Nxd5 0–1

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

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.