Dortmund Rd9 – Caruana wins Dortmund!

From Thursday July 13 to Sunday July 22, 2012 the 41st edition annual Sparkassen Chess-Meeting is taking place in Dortmund, Germany. It is a ten-player round robin played. Draw offers are not allowed – a game can only be declared a draw, by the arbiter, if there is no possible win for one side, or if a position is repeated three times. The winner of the tournament will be determined after nine rounds.

Games start at 15:00h = 3 p.m. local time (CEST, = 17:00 Moscow, 14:00 p.m. London, 9:00 a.m. New York). All games will be broadcast by the official web site's "Live Games" page and on the Playchess.com server. As in the previous year the moves of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting will be transmitted on the Internet with a delay of 15 minutes – which means that the moves stay in the playing hall for that period, before they are broadcast to the rest of the world. This is an important anti-cheating measure that has been proposed to FIDE since October 2005 and has the support of most of the top players. We commend the Dortmund organisers for taking the initiative.

Round nine

With an impeccable start, Vladimir Kramnik AKA “Mr. Dortmund”, had seemed ready to cruise to yet another title, but the second half turned out to be rocky waters as he drew a number of games allowing several competitors to catch up, and then of course the crucial loss in round eight. Though he managed to finish on a high note, it will nevertheless nag him to know that the title might have been within his grasp.

Edged out only on tiebreak, Sergey Karjakin had a great tournament overall

Nothing can be taken away from Sergey Karjakin, who never let the podium out of sight. He also had a serious scare in round eight against Georg Meier, but his good fortune held out, and the game drew. A final win in the last round assured him a minimum of a share of first but ultimately it was not entirely in his hands. A strong and convincing result for the youngest grandmaster in history.

Ruslan Ponomariov  also had his chance, but a brain hiccup that saw his position collapse against Mateusz Bartel in round six was vital. Despite this, had he won in the final round against Daniel Fridman, he would have come ahead of both Caruana and Karjakin by virtue of tiebreak, but it was not to be and he had to settle for third.

One could argue that Fabiano Caruana is the player most in form, considering the sheer volume of classical games he has played in 2012 alone: nearly one hundred. Eventually he may need to slow down to rest and regroup, but one cannot fault his performance in any way or form. After a loss in the second round to Ponomariov, he slowly clawed his way back up the ranks until that key win in round eight against Vladimir Kramnik, thrusting him to the top with his chances. His no-argument win in the final round was all it took to celebrate another fine tournament victory.

The timeless collective picture to record the moment for posterity (and chess news sites)

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Standings after nine rounds

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Schedule and results

Round 1: Friday, July 13, 15:00h Daniel Fridman  ½-½  Jan Gustafsson Peter Leko  ½-½  Ruslan Ponomariov Fabiano Caruana  ½-½  Arkadij Naiditsch  Georg Meier  1-0  Mateusz Bartel Sergey Karjakin  ½-½  Vladimir Kramnik	Round 2: Saturday, July 14, 15:00h Jan Gustafsson  0-1  Vladimir Kramnik Ruslan Ponomariov  1-0  Fabiano Caruana Arkadij Naiditsch  ½-½  Georg Meier Mateusz Bartel  0-1  Sergey Karjakin Daniel Fridman  ½-½  Peter Leko
Round 3: Sunday, July 15, 15:00h Peter Leko  1-0  Jan Gustafsson Georg Meier  0-1  Ruslan Ponomariov Sergey Karjakin  ½-½  Arkadij Naiditsch  Vladimir Kramnik  1-0  Mateusz Bartel Fabiano Caruana  1-0  Daniel Fridman	Round 4: Monday, July 16, 15:00h Jan Gustafsson  ½-½  Mateusz Bartel Ruslan Ponomariov  ½-½  Sergey Karjakin Arkadij Naiditsch  ½-½  Vladimir Kramnik Daniel Fridman  ½-½  Georg Meier Peter Leko  ½-½  Fabiano Caruana
Round 5: Tuesday, July 17, 15:00h Fabiano Caruana  1-0  Jan Gustafsson Vladimir Kramnik  ½-½  Ruslan Ponomariov Mateusz Bartel  0-1  Arkadij Naiditsch  Sergey Karjakin  1-0  Daniel Fridman Georg Meier  ½-½  Peter Leko	Round 6: Thursday, July 19, 15:00h Jan Gustafsson  0-1  Arkadij Naiditsch Ruslan Ponomariov  0-1  Mateusz Bartel Daniel Fridman  ½-½  Vladimir Kramnik Peter Leko  ½-½  Sergey Karjakin Fabiano Caruana  ½-½  Georg Meier
Round 7: Friday, July 20, 15:00h Georg Meier  ½-½  Jan Gustafsson Arkadij Naiditsch  ½-½  Ruslan Ponomariov Mateusz Bartel  ½-½  Daniel Fridman  Vladimir Kramnik  ½-½  Peter Leko Sergey Karjakin  ½-½  Fabiano Caruana	Round 8: Saturday, July 21, 15:00h Jan Gustafsson  0-1  Ruslan Ponomariov Daniel Fridman  ½-½  Arkadij Naiditsch Peter Leko  1-0  Mateusz Bartel Fabiano Caruana  1-0  Vladimir Kramnik Georg Meier  ½-½  Sergey Karjakin
Round 9: Sunday, July 22, 13:00h Sergey Karjakin  1-0  Jan Gustafsson Ruslan Ponomariov  ½-½  Daniel Fridman Arkadij Naiditsch  ½-½  Peter Leko  Mateusz Bartel  0-1  Fabiano Caruana Vladimir Kramnik  1-0  Georg Meier

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Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Previous reports

• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2011
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2010
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2009
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2008
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2007
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2006
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2005
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2004
• ChessBase reports on Dortmund 2003

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