Dortmund: Vachier-Lagrave takes lead

by André Schulz
7/13/2016 – In round four of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting Dortmund Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won against German grandmaster Rainer Buhmann. Long time Buhmann's Breyer looked solid but then the French grandmaster opened lines with a tricky pawn-break. The three other games ended in a draw: Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu could not convert an advantage against Evgeny Najer, Fabiano Caruana found no recipe against Leinier Dominguez' Petroff and Ruslan Ponomariov and Vladimir Kramnik also drew without too much excitement.

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In round three German grandmaster Rainer Buhmann had to play with Black against the number two in the world, in round four he had to play with Black against the world's number four, Maxime Vachier Lagrave. In a Spanish Breyer Buhmann for a long time seemed to be equal or close to equal but then he lost control which gave the French grandmaster an opportunity to show his class.

Rainer Buhmann

 

 

Najer and Nisipeanu

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu got an endgame with an extra pawn against Evgeny Najer but as it turned out this was not enough to win.

Dominguez against Caruana

Leinier Dominguez decided to try a Petroff against Fabiano Caruana. Before the Berlin Defense became popular the Petroff was the most popular defense against 1.e4 when Black had his eyes set on a draw. The Cuban grandmaster did in fact not seem to mind a draw with Black against Caruana and he had no real problems to get it.

Vladimir Kramnik played with Black against Ruslan Ponomariov and he too seemed to be content with a draw - which he got after 27 moves.

Ruslan Ponomariov

Vladimir Kramnik

Results of round four

Bd. Title Name ELO Result Title Name ELO
1 GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave 2788 1 - 0 GM Rainer Buhmann 2651
2 GM Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu 2669 ½ - ½ GM Evgeniy Najer 2681
3 GM Fabiano Caruana 2804 ½ - ½ GM Leinier Dominguez Perez 2732
4 GM Ruslan Ponomariov 2715 ½ - ½ GM Vladimir Kramnik 2801

Games - Rounds 1 to 4

 

Standings after four rounds

  Title Name Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pts. TB
1 GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave 2788     ½ ½ 1     1 3.0 / 4  
2 GM Leinier Dominguez Perez 2732     ½   ½ 1   ½ 2.5 / 4  
3 GM Vladimir Kramnik 2801 ½ ½       ½   ½ 2.0 / 4 4.25
4 GM Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu 2669 ½       ½ ½ ½   2.0 / 4 4.25
5 GM Fabiano Caruana 2804 0 ½   ½     1   2.0 / 4 3.75
6 GM Ruslan Ponomariov 2715   0 ½ ½     1   2.0 / 4 3.50
7 GM Evgeniy Najer 2681       ½ 0 0   1 1.5 / 4  
8 GM Rainer Buhmann 2651 0 ½ ½       0   1.0 / 4  

 

Photos: Georgios Souleidis

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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