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Last year, in the absence of Vladimir Kramnik, Dmitrij Kollars stunned spectators and pundits with his tournament victory at the NC World Masters of the Dortmund Chess Festival. Now, the German grandmaster obtained a marvellous victory over 10-time Dortmund winner.
Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3
The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.
Dimitrij Kollars | Photo: Michelle Lassak
Kollars didn’t come out of the opening at all well with white, after Jürgen Grastat made the first move for him. Grastat ran the International Dortmund Chess Days for 20 years as tournament director (1983 - 2002). Kollars then decided to create complications in the position. In the resulting entanglements, he came out on top, as he punished the former world champion’s mistakes to win the game in grand style.
“I still have a lot of adrenaline in me, but it feels good”, the young German said in the interview a few minutes after his victory. The whole interview (in German), including analysis, was uploaded to YouTube.
US star Fabiano Caruana had an inferior position and needed to fight hard for a long time, but he finally managed to hold a draw against Pavel Eljanov. He commented on the new rules after his first two games in the No-Castling Chess format:
It’s fun. All the games, all the openings are very interesting. You get a fight immediately. I mean, Kramnik’s game today for example was very chaotic, I didn’t know what was going on. You get some really fighting positions early on. So I like the concept.
The world number 3 is looking forward to the coming games. Now he is half a point ahead of Kollars and Kramnik atop the standings.
Very combatibe chess was seen in round 4 of the A-Open. On the first three boards, played on the tournament’s stage, only Alexander Donchenko could win in the end. He gained an early advantage against Frederik Svane, and finally made use of his extra exchange up. Matthias Bluebaum, on the other hand, had to survive a few difficulties and was able to escape with a draw against Leon Mendonca. Mendonca had opportunities to win the game in the middlegame.
The second player with 4 points from 4 games is Aryan Chopra, who won after 5½ hours against Arthur Guo. Thus, Donchenko and Chopra will meet on Wednesday at the top board of the A-Open.
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!
| Rg. | Name | Elo | Pts. | TB1 | ||
| 1 | GM | Aryan Chopra, | 2626 | 4 | 9 | |
| 2 | GM | Donchenko,Alexander, | 2667 | 4 | 7,5 | |
| 3 | GM | Mendonca,Leon Luke, | 2623 | 3,5 | 9,5 | |
| 4 | GM | Blübaum,Matthias, | 2673 | 3,5 | 9,5 | |
| 5 | GM | Adams,Michael, | 2666 | 3,5 | 9 | |
| GM | Kobo,Ori, | 2556 | 3,5 | 9 | ||
| 7 | GM | Pranav Anand, | 2510 | 3,5 | 7,5 | |
| 8 | IM | Rathanvel,V S, | 2463 | 3,5 | 6,5 | |
| 9 | IM | Samunenkov,Ihor, | 2499 | 3,5 | 6,5 | |
| 10 | GM | Svane,Frederik, | 2622 | 3 | 10 | |
| 11 | IM | Guo,Arthur, | 2445 | 3 | 9,5 | |
| 12 | IM | Colpe,Malte, | 2382 | 3 | 9 | |
| 13 | IM | Laurent-Paoli,Pierre, | 2572 | 3 | 8,5 | |
| GM | Akesson,Ralf, | 2402 | 3 | 8,5 | ||
| 15 | GM | Svane,Rasmus, | 2625 | 3 | 8,5 | |
| 16 | IM | Muthaiah AL, | 2439 | 3 | 8,5 | |
| 17 | FM | Woelk,Tom-Frederic, | 2330 | 3 | 8,5 | |
| 18 | IM | Feuerstack,Aljoscha, | 2462 | 3 | 8 | |
| 19 | GM | Bailet,Pierre, | 2513 | 3 | 8 | |
| IM | Samant Aditya S, | 2503 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 21 | GM | Ponomariov,Ruslan, | 2664 | 3 | 8 | |
| IM | Meins,Gerlef, | 2413 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 23 | GM | Wagner,Dennis, | 2616 | 3 | 8 | |
| GM | Safarli,Eltaj, | 2609 | 3 | 8 | ||
| Garner,Isaac, | 2359 | 3 | 8 |
In the Sportland NRW Cup, Ruben Gideon Köllner claimed yet another victory. With 3½ points from 4 games, the 19-year-old is now in the lead and has good chances of getting a grandmaster norm in the tournament.
Meanwhile, 11-year-old Hussain Besou continues to play impressively: the greatest young talent in Germany missed his second victory against a grandmaster and is well in the fight for tournament victory with 2½ points from 4 games.
The most famous German-speaking chess YouTuber, Georgios Souleidis, a.k.a. The Big Greek, is currently in second place. TBG benefited from a mishap in the opening by Jana Schneider, for whom not much has come together in Dortmund so far.
Attack like a Super Grandmaster
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM†with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
| Rg. | Name | Elo | Pkt. | Wtg1 | |
| 1 | IM | Köllner,Ruben Gideon, | 2429 | 3,5 | 3 |
| 2 | IM | Souleidis,Georgios, | 2419 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | WGM | Wagner,Dinara, | 2447 | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | GM | Karthik Venkataraman, | 2548 | 2,5 | 2 |
| 5 | FM | Besou,Hussain, | 2325 | 2,5 | 1 |
| 6 | IM | Petrovskiy,Vadim, | 2423 | 1,5 | 1 |
| 7 | GM | Saltaev,Mihail, | 2462 | 1,5 | 1 |
| 8 | GM | Bagrationi,Alexander, | 2454 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | FM | De Winter,Arthur, | 2378 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | FM | Schneider,Jana, | 2326 | 0,5 | 0 |
