This chess-crazy German city has never been kind to former World champion Viswanathan Anand but there is another champion who has performed exceptionally well here. Vladimir Kramnik has won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting six times from 1995 to 2001 (with a miss in 1999) and will be the hot favourite to win another title as the 2003 edition gets underway tomorrow. Six top Grandmasters will play the double round robin and each of them has something to prove. Kramnik will try to make it seven; Anand has to get a breakthrough; Peter Leko is top form and had one well in Dortmund in 1999; Teimour Radjabov, 16, who beat Kasparov in the Linares tournament; Arkadi Naiditsch from Germany, 17, the German hope; Viorel Bologan of Moldova. Dortmund also holds the key to Anand’s quest to reach the 2,800-rating mark. Though one tournament would not help him gain so many points, this would be a pointer to his form in the next six months. He has had a superb first six months winning everything that he played in. Peter Leko has such a good history with Dortmund that the city is sometimes referred to as his ‘‘second home.’’ He met his wife Sofie Petrosian in Dortmund. Three years back, the top three players — Kramnik, Anand and Adams — didn’t lose to any of the other seven players. Then in a triangular tie, Kramnik beat Anand, Anand beat Adams, and Adams beat Kramnik. Kramnik and Anand had the same score (6.0/9) and Kramnik was the winner since he had beaten Anand. This was the closest that Anand came to winning the title here. In 2001, the Dortmund format was changed into a Linares-like double round robin. Kramnik was the Braingames world champion; Vishy Anand was the Fide champion. An unofficial battle of the world champions was the toast of the tournament. Anand didn’t win a single game and suffered four losses. In contrast, Kramnik didn’t lose a single game (three wins). Topalov came second while Kramnik emerged the winner for a record sixth time. Both Kramnik and Anand were missing from the 2002 edition. Round 1: V.Kramnik vs T. Radjabov A; Naiditsch vs Bologan; Anand vs P. Leko.
