Dortmund 2011: Kramnik Loses to Nakamura, Still Wins the Tournament
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 10:53AM
Dennis Monokroussos in Dortmund 2011

Le Quang - Giri and Meier - Ponomariov were relatively easygoing draws, so the drama du jour fell fully upon the Kramnik - Nakamura game. Normally one would expect both players to be happy with a quick draw: Nakamura had the black pieces and would probably like to put an end to a bad tournament, while Kramnik had achieved what he needed to and could put a relaxed end to a great event.

Didn't happen. Nakamura played one of his usual combative openings, the King's Indian Defense, and Kramnik went for a speculative sacrifice on move 23 (23.Nfxg5). Black was better, but White had fair chances for equality. This could have been achieved, for instance, with the obvious 32.Nxd6, bailing out to a probably drawn ending. Kramnik chose instead 32.Ng5??, with a losing position. Nakamura gave him one last chance to save the game with 36.Qg6, but it was easy to miss (Kramnik's last move was 35.Qh7-h5), and miss it he did. After that there were no further opportunities, and Nakamura soon won. A nice finish for him, ending with two wins after a dreadful -3 start that could have been even worse.

Final Standings:

1. Kramnik 7

2. Le 5.5

3-4. Ponomariov, Giri 5

5. Nakamura 4.5

6. Meier 3

Tournament site here, games (with notes to Kramnik-Nakamura) here.

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
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