Dortmund: Kramnik and Caruana with splendid starts

Kramnik attacks, Caruana shows his class

The fourth tournament of the 2023 Dortmund Festival started on Monday. Sebastian Junker, board member of Sparkasse Dortmund, made the symbolic first move at the board of Pavel Eljanov and Vladimir Kramnik. Eljanov won the last two round-robin tournaments in Dortmund, while Kramnik is the undisputed record holder with 10 tournament victories.

Master Class Vol.11: Vladimir Kramnik

This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) how to successfully organise your games strategically, consequently how to keep y

Kramnik played creatively from the start in the special tournament mode of chess-without-castling, pushing his h-pawn to h5 and placing his knight and queen in attacking positions against f2.

He mercilessly exploited Eljanov’s inaccuracies and got an early attack against the white king. He was thus the first to win his game on the stage in the Goldsaal of the Westfalenhallen. “Above all, I’m happy to be healthy in Dortmund, I feel very well, and I’m looking forward to the tournament”, Kramnik said in an interview after the game, after he had to withdraw at short notice last year due to a covid infection.

Both players were guests of press officer Patrick Zelbel and gave exciting insights in their post-game interview.

World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana also got off to the perfect start: after five hours, he defeated German representative and last year’s winner Dmitrij Kollars in a rook ending. The opening phase made an interesting but balanced impression. But in the middlegame, Caruana showed his class and slowly but surely gathered advantages.

Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Michelle Lassak

Both players shared their analyses:

All games

Wagner and Köllner share the lead at the Sportland NRW Cup

After her great start, Dinara Wagner met ‘The Big Greek’ Souleidis in the third round. Souleidis equalised early with black, and the game ended in a draw. 

Making the right decisions in chess - Fundamentals

In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.

Dinara Wagner | Photo: Dariusz Gorsinski

Ruben Gideon Köllner, the 2021 winner, was able to catch up with Wagner thanks to a beautiful attacking win over Mihail Saltaev. “The opening idea was not really mine, I got that from Dmitrij Kollars, with whom I train”, he noted after the game. Hussain Besou drew and remains on the heels of the two leaders with 2 out of 3.

The atmosphere at the Westfalenhallen:

Standings - Round 3

All games

Bluebaum, Donchenko, Adams still perfect

Matthias Blübaum and Alexander Donchenko won their games against strong opponents in endgames. Things went faster for Michael Adams, who outplayed his opponent beautifully out of the opening phase: Adams - Janzelj.

Middlegame Secrets Vol.1 + Vol.2

Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!

A total of 8 players are still without a point loss in the A-Open. One of them was Frederik Svane, who won against Valentin Buckels. Svane seems to be in top form after his last tournament win in Teplice. 

Frederic Svane | Photo: Dariusz Gorsinski

Standings - Round 3

...328 players

All available games

Links

• Official site
• No-Castling Masters: Kramnik and Caruana will play in Dortmund