Dortmund 2012, Round 5: Three Wins, Three Lead, Three Half a Point Behind
The race for first in the 2012 edition of Dortmund wasn't a blowout in any case, but now it's extremely tight. Co-leaders Vladimir Kramnik and Ruslan Ponomariov drew (Kramnik failed to obtain anything serious on the white side of a QGA), and they were caught by Sergey Karjakin, who won a nice positional squeeze against Daniel Fridman on the white side of a "Poisoned Pawn" Caro-Kann.
To call that win a "squeeze" is perhaps an injustice to the marathon battle between Mateusz Bartel and Arkadij Naiditsch, however. The game was sharp early on, with three exchange sacrifices between the two players. By move 31 things had cooled down, and all that remained were a rook, bishop and five pawns for Naiditsch against Bartel's bishops and five pawns. There may have been a relatively easy win for Black shortly before move 50, but if it was there he missed it. By move 54 both sides were down to two pawns (plus the same pieces), and from there the grind began. At move 70 the last "free" pawn move was made, and then Black tried and tried and tried to come up with a winning plan. With a lot of effort, he succeeded, and after 107...Kd5 White was in some trouble. Black threatened 108...Bb6+, when 109.Kd3 would interfere with the bishop on f1, so that 109...Ra2 would win the a-pawn and the game as 110.Bb5 would be impossible. On the other hand, 109.Kf3 Ra2 110.Bb5 would save the pawn but lose the dark-squared bishop to 110...Ra3. Bartel chose 108.Bd2, but that had a problem of its own: 108...g4. The threat is not just to take the h-pawn, but to win the bishop on d2 with ...Bg5+. That pretty much won on the spot; White kicked on for two more moves - 109.h4 Bb6+ 110.Kd3 g3 - and then gave up.
Georg Meier and Peter Leko drew a short but (briefly) interesting Open Catalan with 7.Ne5 Nc6. Black sacs a pawn for some play, and in this game the situation resolved in a repetition.
Finally, Fabiano Caruana defeated Jan Gustafsson in a d3 Ruy, going all-in on a kingside attack that paid off. It's not a happy tournament for Gustafsson (or Bartel).
The standings heading into the rest day thus look like this:
1-3. Ponomariov, Karjakin, Kramnik 3.5 (out of 5)
4-6. Naiditsch, Leko, Caruana 3
7. Meier 2.5
8. Fridman 1.5
9. Gustafsson 1
10. Bartel .5
Round 6 Pairings (on Thursday):
Gustafsson - Naiditsch
Ponomariov - Bartel
Fridman - Kramnik
Leko - Karjakin
Caruana - Meier
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