The longest game of all was the struggle between Georg Meier and Hikaru Nakamura. Meier pressed on the queenside whereas Nakamura was looking for a kingside attack in his pet King's Indian Defence. The German ditched the exchange at one point to stem the attack, and a long series of bizzare toing-and-froing took place where at first the American was pressing, but eventually the tables turned. Indeed Nakamura found himself down on material for very little, but he put up stauch resistance. Time and creative trickery from Nakamura must both have combined to give Meier practical problems, but he managed to save the day.
A 150 moves of sheer fighting spirit.
Round 5 summary:
| White | Rating | Result | Black | Rating | Moves | Openings details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Quang Liem | 2715 | 1-0 | Ruslan Ponomariov | 2764 | 71 | Queen's Gambit Declined |
| Georg Meier | 2656 | ½ -½ | Hikaru Nakamura | 2770 | 150 | King's Indian Defence |
| Vladimir Kramnik | 2781 | 1-0 | Anish Giri | 2701 | 44 | Grünfeld Exchange |
The standings after the fifth round:
| Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Kw | Kb | Lw | Lb | Pw | Pb | Gw | Gb | Nw | Nb | Mw | Mb | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 2781 | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | . | 1 | . | 1 | 4½ |
| 2 | Le Quang Liem | VIE | 2715 | . | ½ | * | * | 1 | . | . | ½ | ½ | . | . | ½ | 3 |
| 3 | Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 2764 | . | 0 | . | 0 | * | * | 1 | . | . | 1 | ½ | . | 2½ |
| 4 | Anish Giri | NED | 2701 | . | 0 | ½ | . | . | 0 | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | 2 |
| 5 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2770 | 0 | . | . | ½ | 0 | . | . | ½ | * | * | . | ½ | 1½ |
| 6 | Georg Meier | GER | 2656 | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | ½ | . | 0 | ½ | . | * | * | 1½ |
Schedule:
July 21st to 25th: Rounds 1 to 5
July 26th: Rest day
July 27th to 30th: Rounds 6 to 9
July 31st: Round 10
The first nine rounds begin at 3pm local time (3pm Paris, 2pm London, 9am New York).
The final round will be two hours earlier.
The time limit is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 in 20, and finally 15 minutes for the remainder of the game. The players also receive an increment of 30 seconds per move.
Official site: http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/2011
Live games: http://schachtage.dokomserver.de/toma/live.htm
The transmission is with a 30 minute delay in order to avoid any possibility of 'external influences affecting the players decisions'.
