Dortmund Chess 2009
With Carlsen, Kramnik, Jakovenko, Leko, Bacrot and Naiditsch
Report by Chessdom.com
The 2009 edition of the chess tournament Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, July 2-12, will have a super strong participation – GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Vladimir Kramnik, GM Dmitry Jakovenko, GM Peter Leko, GM Etienne Bacrot, and GM Arkadij Naiditsch. All players will be over 2700 ELO points, making it one of the super tournaments of the year.
Top seeded is GM Magnus Carlsen (N3 in the world, ELO 2770). This will be the 4th consecutive high level tournament for the Norwegian young star. He opted out of the Grand Prix series, but still enjoys invitations from the top events. Earlier this year he took part in the first Grand Slam events – Corus and Linares, and in May he lost the Mtel Masters 2009 title only in the final round.
The main opposition of Magnus Carlsen is GM Vladimir Kramnik. The 2008 World Chess Championship finalist has not played a rated event this year, which oddly worked in his favor and he climbed positions in the rating chart.
GM Dmitry Jakovenko got a deserved invitation to the Dortmund Chess 2009 event after his steady performance and rating rise at the recent competitions. Jakovenko is ranked seventh in the world with ELO 2753, and a good result in Dortmund can secure the “rating qualifier” spot in the World Chess Championship in 2010 and 2011. Scoring better than Kramnik could make Jakovenko the highest rated Russian player.
The fourth World top 10 participant of Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is last year’s winner GM Peter Leko. The Hungarian has been among the top players for many years already, and will surely be fighting for his 4th title at this tournament. Previously he also won in 1999 and 2002.
The two underdogs, ready to surprise at the tournament, are GM Etienne Bacrot and GM Arkadij Naiditsch. Bacrot has been enjoying a good run recently, starting from the European Club Cup last year, and will be looking to extend it. Naiditsch is the new proud member of the 2700 club, and will be aiming at another title at Dortmund, after the success in 2005.
Original press release in German
Kramnik will break 2800 again.
Kramnik is still alive? Couldn’t prove it by his chess activities.
Most people believe Kramnik is still the real World Chess Champion, the only guy to beat Garry Kasparov in a real match. He was forced to surrender his title by FIDE for the Mexico Tournament and then unfairly challenge Anand for his own title as the challenger. Anand lost his match to Kasparov and now we have Topalov challenging Anand who was beaten by Kramnik with a point in hand. No wonder he has not played a rated chess game this year.
Anonymous,
I have been an avid follower of the “Chess Champion of the World” drama for over 20 years, and my opinion is this- Kramnik is a coward in this regard. He dodged a rematch with Kasparov for years after the Braingames showdown. Yes, he defeated Leko and Topalov in their matches, but he was soundly routed by Anand last year. End of story.
@Yancey Ward: “For a dead man”, Kramnik didn’t play that badly at Amber and Azerbaijan vs. FIDE World … . Granted, these were rapid (and blindfold) events. But, beyond his results, in his games I also saw signs that he at least tries to change his style a bit, no longer avoiding tactical complications.
In any case, it may be too early to write him off/close the curtains on him. He finished second at the Mexico WCh (not such a disastrous result) and lost his match against Anand. Is this “end of story”? The future will tell if he is still a strong (top10) player or even more than that.
Go Peterrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!