John Henderson Dortmund Reports

Round 5 Monday 16th July 2001

KEEP ON TAKING THE PILS

THREE quick, GM draws or three hard-fought games? I’m afraid that’s the moral dilemma we hacks go through every day in the pressroom in Dortmund.

Of course it would be nice to see the player’s all have a no-holds barred go at each other every round, but then again three quick draws allows us to access the free beer much quicker!

In Wijk aan Zee the Dutch are very liberal about allowing the hacks to drink during the day’s play (in fact they practically endorse it!) in the pressroom. Here in Germany it’s simply not the done thing – work has to come first. “Ve are professionals, Ja?”, explained the organiser, Carsten Hensel trying to fob me off with a Cola Light. “Ve only allow beer after the last games is finished, Ja?”

After watching Kramnik and Anand bringing out the pieces in a Petroff, only to see them being put back in again with a 17-move draw, I was beginning to wonder if the player’s had a similar deal with Carsten! Another nine moves later and it was the turn of Topalov and Leko. My professional thoughts turned immediately to the drawer behind the counter where the beer was kept, but then again there was the little matter of Morozevich and Adams – they were content at knocking lumps out of each other for the game of the day.

However I was soon pacified by a promise of a night out in the local tavern by the Germans – and all in the name of cultural research I kidded myself on. I discovered that this was a tradition of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Festival: the night of the round before the rest-day, those fun-loving Germans simply let what little hair they have down with a good old-fashioned drinking session. I suddenly had visions of ruddy-faced Germans waving beer steins and signing Horst Wessel Lied for all they were worth, while accompanying a lederhosen-clad Willi and the Bavarian Boys on stage in the corner.

It wasn’t long that a small groups of us, including Carsten Hensel, Mainz Chess Classic organiser Hans-Walter Schmitt, German GM Klaus Bischoff, photographer and journalist extraordinaire Dagobert Kohlmeyer, myself and few more headed down Josephstr to the welcoming arms of the Trödler.

Now beer in Germany is serious business. In fact so serious a business, one in three of the world’s breweries are in Germany. This fact alone should tell you what the Germans think about beer. Not so much a way of life, more the be-all and end-all of it.

Small, local breweries manage to survive and thrive not just in ones or twos but in droves. Beer has a traditional association with monasteries, where much of it used to be brewed. 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 the German Beer Purity Regulation, a law laid down in 1516 (and I don’t mean just after quarter past three here!) and unaltered since, which states that only water, hops, malt and yeast may go into beer – pure nectar, and just as God intended it!

The Germans threw another “wobbly” over the European Community when the Eurocrats, in-between hopping (no pun intended!) on and off the Gravy Train heading for Brussels, tried to tell them that this law had to go in the interests of regulatory “harmonisation”. Thankfully they were soon forced to back down. So, while some 4,000 brands of pure German beer are offered, all imports have to be specially labelled to warn of their impure and contaminated state.

The most popular beer is Pils, which is also the number one export in contrast to Export beer, curiously which is hardly ever sent outside the country, and Alt (old) beer which, of course, is drunk as young as possible.

Beer in Germany is always served cold with a generous layer of foam. Such an orderly head can require a good five minutes or so to be poured and is not recommended for those of a thirsty disposition. The house speciality of the Trödler was naturally a Dortmund beer: Brinkhoff's No.1, aptly numbered by the many and frequent visits I made during the night to the Herren!

In Germany they have a quaint system of buying beer – you don’t pay for anything until it’s time to leave. Rather than have a good drink spoiled by going through the annoying little matter of paying for it, you receive a fresh beer mat with your first drink. With each drink you have, the waitress will simple put a pencil mark on the beer mat. At the end of the evening, you pay them according to how many marks on the mat. Only the Germans could be so trusting of people in pubs!

A game of random Fischer Chess rounds off the evening

I vaguely remember drinking at least eight Brinkhoff’s before falling off my chair whilst attempting to take some photographs. I even remember listening intently to a vociferous debate (in German) over the future of the world chess championships – and I don’t even speak German! There I was, nodding intelligently to the likes of Carsten and Hans-Walter during parts of the debate, and the only thing I was able to understand was: “Kasparow”, “Kramnik”, “Anand”, and “Peter Leko”. It was to get worse though: someone had the bright idea of ending the evening with a Fischer Random blitz (or should that be blitzed?) tournament. Now I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult enough playing real chess while I’ve been drinking – but Fischer Random? This was just too much for me.

The next morning when I woke up, I had a hangover that you could have sold to medical science that was making sounds in my head like that gong from the Rank movies as I struggled to make for the toilet to make low death noises. For the rest of the day I could only hear this incessant “tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap”, before I finally figured out that it was coming from my laptop as I wrote this report. Thankfully I had the good sense to annotate this Morozevich game before heading out the night before – I think!

Morozevich,A (2749) - Adams,M (2744) [A28]

1 c4 A surprise already. Morozevich in the past has played a few times an English-cum-Reti - but not at this level. 1 ..Nf6 2 Nc3 e5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 e4 Bb4 [4 ..Bc5 5 Nxe5! is well-know to favour white.] 5 d3 d6 6 Be2 h6 [6 ..a6 7 0–0 Bc5 8 Be3 Nd4 9 b4 Ba7 10 Nd5 Nxd5 11 cxd5 0–0 12 Nxd4 exd4 13 Bf4 Bb6 14 a4 a5 15 b5 Bd7 16 Rc1 Rc8 17 Bg3 f5 18 exf5 Bxf5 19 Bf3 Re8 20 Qc2 Qg5 21 Be4 Bxe4 22 dxe4 h5 23 Qd3 h4 24 f4 Qe7 25 Bf2 Qxe4 26 Qh3 Qxf4 27 Kh1 d3 28 Bxh4 Qh6 29 Qg4 d2 30 Rcd1 Be3 31 Rf3 Rf8 32 Rh3 Rce8 33 Be7 Qf4 34 Qe6+ Qf7 35 Rxe3 Rxe7 36 Qxf7+ Rfxf7 0–1 Milov,V-Kortschnoj,V/Dresden 1998/CBM 65.] 7 0–0 Bc5 8 Nd2 Nd4 9 Nb3 Nxb3 10 axb3 0–0 11 Kh1 c6 12 f4 Bd4 13 Bf3 a6 14 h3 Qe7 15 Ne2 Ba7 16 Bd2

16 ..b5 [It suspiciously looks as if Tricky Mickey missed a trick: 16 ..Ng4!? 17 Bxg4 (17 hxg4?? Qh4#; 17 Qe1 Ne3 18 Bxe3 Bxe3 and black has total control of the dark-squares.) 17 ..Bxg4 18 Qe1 Bxe2 19 Qxe2 exf4 20 Rxf4 (20 Bxf4 f5! 21 Rae1 fxe4 22 Qxe4 Qxe4 23 dxe4 (23 Rxe4? g5!) 23 ..Bc5 with good prospects of winning the ending due to the weakness of the white pawns.) 20 ..Qe5 21 Rb1 f5! with a big plus.] 17 Ng3 Rb8 18 Nf5 Bxf5 19 exf5 bxc4 20 bxc4 Bd4 [Taking on b2 would have been fatal - especially against someone like Morozevich!: 20 ..Rxb2? 21 Bc3! Rb6 (21 ..Rb7 22 Rxa6 Rfb8 23 Qa1!) 22 c5 dxc5 23 fxe5 Nd5 (23 ..Nd7 24 f6 gxf6 25 exf6 Nxf6 26 Qd2 Nd5 27 Ra4!) 24 f6! Qb7 25 fxg7 Kxg7 26 Be4 with a winning advantage.] 21 Rxa6 Qb7 22 Ra2

22 ..Qb3? [Mickey had to take now on b2: 22 ..Bxb2 23 fxe5 (23 Qb1 Rfc8=) 23 ..dxe5 (23 ..Bxe5?! 24 d4! Bxd4 25 Bxh6 Be5 26 Bg5 with good prospects.) 24 Qb1 Rfc8=] 23 Qxb3 Rxb3 24 fxe5 dxe5 25 Bxc6 Rc8 26 Bf3 Rxd3 [Taking on b2 might have proved the lesser of two evils: 26 ..Rxb2 27 Rxb2 Bxb2 28 Rb1 Bd4 29 Rb7 e4! 30 dxe4 Rxc4 31 Bf4 and at least black may have chances of saving the game.] 27 b4! Bc3 28 Bxc3 Rxc3 29 Be2! [The immediate push can lead to problems: 29 c5? e4 30 Be2 Rb8! 31 Ra4 Rc2 32 Ba6 Nd5 33 b5 (33 Rb1? Nc3!) 33 ..Rxc5 34 Rxe4 Nc7 35 g4 Nxb5 36 Rb1 Rb6 37 Re8+ (37 Reb4 Rxa6!=) 37 ..Kh7 38 Bxb5 Rcxb5 39 Rxb5 Rxb5 40 Re7=] 29 ..Rb3 30 b5 Ne4 31 Rf3 Rb1+ [31 ..Rxf3 32 gxf3 Nc3 33 Rd2 Nxe2 34 Rxe2 Rxc4 35 Rxe5 is an easy win.] 32 Kh2 Nd6 33 Rfa3 Kh7 [33 ..Nxc4? 34 Ra8! Nb6 35 Rxc8+ Nxc8 36 Ra8 wins the knight.] 34 Ra8 Rxa8 35 Rxa8 Rb2 36 Bf1 e4 [36 ..Nxf5 37 Bd3 g6 38 c5! (Taking on f5 is fraught with danger: the rook ending is by no means easy 38 Bxf5 gxf5 39 Kg3 f4+ 40 Kf3 f5 and suddenly life is complicated.) 38 ..Ne3 39 Kg3! Rb3 (39 ..Nxg2 40 c6; 39 ..Rxg2+?? 40 Kf3) 40 b6! and the advanced pawns easily win the day.] 37 c5 Nxb5 38 Rb8 e3 39 Bc4 e2 40 Bxf7 g5 [40 ..e1Q?? 41 Bg6#] 41 Bg6+ Kg7 42 Rb7+ Kf6 [42 ..Kh8 43 Rh7+ Kg8 44 f6 e1Q 45 f7+ Kf8 46 Rh8+ Ke7 47 f8Q+ Kd7 48 Qc8+ Ke7 49 Rh7+ Kf6 50 Qf5#] 43 Rf7+ Ke5 44 Re7+ Kd5 45 f6 Nd4

46 Bh5! [Again white has to be careful and not rush into it: 46 f7? Nf3+ 47 Kh1 (47 Kg3?? e1Q+ 48 Rxe1 Nxe1 49 f8Q Rxg2#!; 47 gxf3 e1Q+!) 47 ..Ne5! 48 f8Q e1Q+ 49 Kh2 Qe2=] 46 ..Rb1 47 f7 Rf1 48 Rxe2! [48 Rxe2! Nxe2 49 Bf3+! Rxf3 50 gxf3 and the pawn queens.] 1–0

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

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