Dortmund 01: Germans excel!

The 2015 Sparkassen Chess Meeting is taking place in Dortmund from the 27th of June to the 5th of July, 2015.

As is usual the tournament invites some of the strongest German players to participate against the World Elite. In this case, the invited Germans are Nisipeanu, Meier and Naiditsch.

The strongest "visitor" is Fabiano Caruana, currently number two in the World, something that will change in the next rating list after the unexpected results in Norway. Caruana is also now playing under the American flag officially as FIDE has processed his transfer request. He is the defending champion of this event.

The second rated player in the event is Vladimir Kramnik, 10-time winner of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting, although a few of those were shared wins, it is still an impressive feat. Wesley So is another player in the top-10 participating in the event.

The field is rounded off by Ian Nepomniachtchi, who earned his qualification by winning Aeroflot earlier this year, and Hou Yifan, the former Women's World Champion and the undisputed strongest active female player. It will make for some interesting fights, as both of these players are quite aggressive!

Round One

Did round one start with a bang! It was a great day for the German players, although honestly it should have been ever better:

Nepomniachtchi, Ian ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
Nepomniacthchi's Fianchetto approach against the Grunfeld netted him nothing, and he was outplayed after that. Despite Caruana's horrible structure, his superior piece placement (specially his rook on a2 and his queen on d5) gave him immense pressure. Nepo was forced to drop a pawn, but he held on to drawing chances based on the poor black structure. Caruana missed a couple of chances to put on further pressure, and the Russian defended well. A drawn endgame was eventually reached.

Fabi is now American, not 'Italien'!

Meier, Georg ½-½ Hou Yifan
White obtained maybe the slightest bit of pressure from the opening, with control of the c-file and some problems for black with her weak pawn on e5. This grew, and grew, and grew as Hou Yifan did not want to defend passively, instead seeking dubious counterchances.

Georg didn't convert today, which would have given the Germans a 3-0 sweep!

Meier reached the following endgame, but did not convert:

Yifan escaped an unfortunate situation today

Kramnik, Vladimir 0-1 Naiditsch, Arkadij
A fascinating game! Kramnik obtained a slightly opening edge, but it was neutralized when Naiditsch started playing strong on the kingside. Naiditsch, who comes from a horrible performance at the Top 12 in France where he lost 32 rating points, played an attacking and strong game.

Kramnik tried to sacrifice a piece to diffuse the tension on the kingside and to use his passed pawn, but Naiditsch played too precisely to let that happen. He gobbled up the bishop on a2, returning with his knight to protect against the advance of the d-pawn and that was all she wrote.

How to recover from the worst tournament of your life? 
Beating Kramnik with Black sounds like a good way to start.

Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 1-0 So, Wesley
The game of the round:

Liviu-Dieter is always a dangerous opponent!

Replay Round One Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Schedule

Pictures: Dagobert Kohlmeyer

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.