Leko Advances for right to play Kramnik!

The Dortmund Qualifier was the first such tournament played under the new World Championship cycle.

"This year the traditional Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is a super-strong tournament. Eight players have been invited, according to their standing in the ratings lists (Kasparov and Anand have refused). This year the traditional Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting will decide a challenger for Vladimir Kramnik's Einstein title."

The eight Grandmasters (GMs) included: Veselin Topalov (BUL), Michael Adams (ENG), Alexander Morozevich (RUS), Boris Gelfand (ISR), Alexei Shirov (ESP), Peter Leko (HUN), Evgeni Bareev (RUS), Christopher Lutz (GER).

The tournament lived up to expectations and some very exciting chess was played. In the final, GM Leko of Hungary bested the "Bulgarian Bruiser" GM Topalov 2½-1½ in a display of fighting chess.

The event was well-covered and John Henderson did a stellar job of covering the event with his timely photo reports, analysis and blow-by-blow account of the tournament.

Certainly there were a lot of blows meted out. The Topalov mating attack against Bareev (see diagram from ChessBase site) was absolutely stunning! Too bad there weren't any sound effects!!

If the chess played in Dortmund was indicative of the chess we can expect in subsequent qualifiers, then I believe that the World Championship will benefit greatly! Enjoy!

Download all games in PGN format

See Chessgate.de (German language site--nice!)

See Dortumund photo reports by John Henderson (ChessBase.com)

See Dortmund Final (Topalov-Leko) coverage (ChessBase.com)

Posted by The Chess Drum: 22 July 2002