CHESS

Bobby Fischer despised short events and demanded that the world championship matches be fought to 10 wins, draws not counting. He also wanted to play the U.S. championship as a double round robin. The longer the tournament or the match, the better the chances for a stronger player to prevail. One nasty opening surprise in a short tourney and you are out, as the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik experienced in the eight-grandmaster Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, Germany.

Hungary's Peter Leko won the elite event yesterday, scoring 4 1/2 points in seven games and edging four grandmasters, Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk, Germany's Jan Gustafsson, Azerbaijan's Shakhriar Mamedyarov and Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi, by half a point. Kramnik finished with 3 points after his steadfast Petroff defense deserted him twice. First he lost to Germany's Arkadij Naiditsch, who caught him by surprise with a prepared, entertaining rook sacrifice. In the last round, Kramnik was steamrolled by Ivanchuk in the same line.

Naiditsch-Kramnik

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 (The sharp 7...Bg4 is best met by the undermining 8.c4, for example 8...Nf6 9.Nc3 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 Nxd4 11.Qh3! And now after 11...Ne6 the game may end up in a romantic mate: 12.cxd5 Nxd5 13.Bg6! Nxc3 14.Qxe6+ Qe7 15.Bxf7+ Kd8 16.Bg5! Qxg5 17.Qe8 mate.) 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c4 Nf6 10.Nc3! (A promising pawn sacrifice, giving white a lead in development.) 10...Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nxd4 12.Qd1 Ne6 13.cxd5 Nxd5 14.Bb5+ c6 15.Nxd5 cxb5 16.Bf4 (In the final round, Ivanchuk pressured Kramnik with 16.Qh5 0-0 17.Nxe7 Qxe7 18.Qxb5 Rfd8 19.Be3, and turned his slight advantage into a victory in 49 moves.) 16...Nxf4 17.Rxe7+ Kf8 18.Re5 Qd6 (Black is usually holding this position, but here comes a bolt from the blue.)

19.Qd2!? (The rook sacrifice is an amazing novelty, deflecting the black queen to the e-file where it can be pinned. After 19.Rf5 comes the pin 19...Rd8 and black is fine; and 19.Qd4 is met by 19...f6.) 19...Ng6? (Frequently, the best way to test any sacrifice is by accepting it. But Kramnik leaves the dominant and dangerous white knight in the center, plays without the rook on h8 and runs into trouble. After 19...Qxe5 20.Qb4+ Ke8 [On 20...Kg8 21.Ne7+ Kf8 22.Ng6+ wins], black should hold either after 21.Re1 Ne2+ 22.Kf1 Rc8! since 23.Rxe2? is met by 23...Rc1+; or after 21.Qxb5+ Kd8 22.Rd1 Ne2+ 23.Kh1 Nd4 24.Qxb7! Rc8!, but not 24...Rb8 25.Qxa7 Rxb2 26.Nb6! and white is better.) 20.Ree1 f6 21.Rad1 Kf7 22.Qe3! (Threatening both 23.Qb3 and 23.Ne7, winning material.)

22...Rhe8 23.Ne7! Qxe7 (Giving up the queen and hoping to build an impenetrable fortress is Kramnik's best chance.) 24.Qb3+ Kf8 25.Rxe7 Rxe7 26.Qxb5 Rae8 27.g3 Ne5 (Exchanging a pair of rooks, 27...Re1+ 28.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 29.Kg2 Re7, leaves the black knight out of play after 30.f4.) 28.Kg2 Nc6 29.b4! (Naiditsch begins to squeeze black on both wings.) 29...a6 30.Qb6 h6 31.a4 Ne5 32.Qc5 Kg8 33.b5 axb5 34.axb5 Nf7 35.h4 Kh8 36.Rd2 Kg8 37.Kh3 Kh8 38.f4 Kg8 39.h5 (Tightening the screws. White can now concentrate on winning the weak b-pawn.) 39...Kh8 40.Qf5 Nd8 41.Rd7 Ne6 42.Qd5 Black resigned.

Solution to today's problem by H. Meyer (White: Kb4,Qd1,Re8,Bb2,P:d5; Black: Kb7,Ba6,P:b5,b6): 1.Bh8! Ka7 2.Qa1 Kb7 3.Qg7 mate; or 1...Kc7 2.Qc2+ Kd6 (2...Kb7 3.Qh7 mate) 3.Qc6 mate.