chess

One of the strongest events of the year is under way in Dortmund, Germany. Apart from Kasparov and Anand, both now securely cloistered in preparation for their PCA world championship match in September, most of the world's finest are among the 10 players.

The biggest surprise so far has been the performance of the Hungarian super-prodigy Peter Leko who has begun with a win against Eric Lobron and draws against Karpov, Short and Piket. At 15, Leko seems already to have learned how to survive against the world's best.

After four rounds, the lead is held by Vladimir Kramnik with an impressive 31/2 points, followed by Karpov, Leko and Lautier 21/2; Piket, Ivanchuk and Bareyev 2; Lobron, Short and Belyavsky 1.

Perhaps the most impressive game so far has been Ivanchuk's win as Black against Belyavsky. White's 7.Bb5+ and 8.Be2 aims to force Black out of his conventional development scheme of Nc6, b6 and Bb7, while leaving the bishop on d7 to interfere with Black's pressure against d4.

With Bc6, Nd7 and Nf6, Ivanchuk found a deep plan to restrain White's centre. 17...Bf8! was an important move to avoid the exchange of black-squared bishops after 18.Nd7.

With 20...Re8! Ivanchuk signalled a move on to the offensive. The move prevents d5 while also preparing to seize the initiative with 21...e5! and 23...f5!

With 26.exf5 losing the queen to Nxf3+, Belyavsky's 26.f4 was a sign of desperation.

At the end 33.Rxe5 Qxe5 leaves White helpless against the threats of b5 or Qe1+. If White tries 34.Qd1, then 34...Qd4+ and 35...Rxc4 wins a piece. A fine positional game and a model example of how to restrain then undermine a perfect pawn centre.

White: A Belyavsky

Black: V Ivanchuk

Grunfeld Defence

1 d4 Nf6 18 Nb3 Nd7

2 c4 g6 19 Bf4 Qa3

3 Nc3 d5 20 Rfd1 Re8

4 cxd5 Nxd5 21 Rc2 e5

5 e4 Nxc3 22 dxe5 Nxe5

6 bxc3 Bg7 23 f3 f5

7 Bb5+ Bd7 24 Qc3 Bg7

8 Be2 c5 25 Bc1 Qe7

9 Nf3 cxd4 26 f4 Bxe4

10 cxd4 Bc6 27 fxe5 Bxc2

11 Qd3 0-0 28 Qxc2 Rac8

12 0-0 e6 29 Bc4+ Kh8

13 Bf4 Nd7 30 Rd5 Qh4

14 Rac1 Nf6 31 Nd2 Rxe5

15 Nd2 Qe7 32 g3 Qe7

16 Qe3 Rfd8 White resigns

17 Be5 Bf8