
The 2015 Sparkassen Chess Meeting is taking place in Dortmund from the 27th of June to the 5th of July, 2015.
Round Seven
Round 07 – July 05 2015, 13:00h | ||||
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
0-1
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
So, Wesley | 2778 |
1-0
|
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
½-½
|
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
½-½
|
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
There was certainly a bit of irony in the way Fabiano Caruana reached the finish line, though taking nothing away from his superb win. Consider after all that after his powerful win over Magnus Carlsen in round two of Norway, everyone thought ‘He’s back!”. Instead it turned out to be the eye of the hurricane, in which destructive winds wreaked havoc on his positions throughout, and he never seemed to recover his footing.
Entrance to the playing hall in the Orchestra Center in Dortmund
On the flip side, here in Dortmund, after a strange game in round two in which he was winning against Wesley So and then lost abysmally, he took off to a fantastic five-win streak leaving everyone well behind in the end. It culminated with a last-round win over Liviu Nisipeanu, who chose to repeat Nakamura’s brush with disaster against Anand in the London Classic six months earlier.
The happy result for the newly repatriated American is that Fabiano Caruana’s Elo freefall has ended, after reaching the summit of Olympus, and he is comfortably back in the 2800 club where he belongs. The Sinquefield Cup cannot arrive too soon.
Nisipeanu, Caruana, Dirk Poldauf (chess magazine Schach), Dagobert Kohlmeyer (press officer)
Nisipeanu’s ill-fated choice had a direct repercussion on the final standings, unfortunately for the Romanian grandmaster whose sterling start had promised a top spot. Instead, Wesley So whose own beginning had been quite iffy, with two losses in three rounds, found himself in a complex endgame against a very belligerent Vladimir Kramnik.
Hou Yifan had an exciting game against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final round, and seemed to have the better chances, with a protected passed pawn on d7, plus two more on the queenside, all for the exchange. The Russian fought back, and hard to avoid finding himself passively waiting for her to build up an advantage. There was a risk of backfiring, and she missed a chance to make him work a little harder to save his half point, but the draw was the end result.
Hou Yifan, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and tournament press officer Dagobert Kohlmeyer
The only annoyance for her is that if she does not regain at least five Elo by the end of the month, or Judit Polgar is not removed due to inactivity, the Hungarian will inherit the no. 1 female spot once more.
Tail-ender Georg Meier came as the lowest rated player in the event, and for anyone who missed the action of the previous rounds, his final result would not appear to be so surprising. However, the sheer number of winning games he had is staggering, including his last round against Arkadij Naidistch, his +5 score against Caruana, and more.
Yet he was unable to convert a single one of these positions, and will undoubtedly do some soul searching after the event, hopefully working to reduce the number of such chances passing him by again.
The players with their rewards, and the guests of honor
Pictures: Frederic Friedel
Round 01 – June 27 2015, 15:00h | ||||
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
½-½
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
½-½
|
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
0-1
|
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
1-0
|
So, Wesley | 2778 |
Round 02 – June 28 2015, 15:00h | ||||
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
0-1
|
So, Wesley | 2778 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
0-1
|
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
0-1
|
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
½-½
|
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
Round 03 – June 30 2015, 15:00h | ||||
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
0-1
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
1-0
|
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
½-½
|
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
So, Wesley | 2778 |
0-1
|
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
Round 04 – July 01 2015, 15:00h | ||||
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
1-0
|
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
½-½
|
So, Wesley | 2778 |
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
½-½
|
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
0-1
|
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
Round 05 – July 03 2015, 15:00h | ||||
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
0-1
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
½-½
|
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
So, Wesley | 2778 |
1-0
|
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
½-½
|
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
Round 06 – July 04 2015, 15:00h | ||||
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
1-0
|
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
1-0
|
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
½-½
|
So, Wesley | 2778 |
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
½-½
|
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
Round 07 – July 05 2015, 13:00h | ||||
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2654 |
0-1
|
Caruana, Fabiano | 2805 |
So, Wesley | 2778 |
1-0
|
Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2722 |
½-½
|
Meier, Georg | 2654 |
Hou, Yifan | 2676 |
½-½
|
Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 |
LinksThe 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. |