DORTMUND 2018 ROUNDS 1 & 2

When I looked at the line-up of players for the seven round Dortmund 2018 tournament I fully expected to only report on the first decisive game in round 3. A score of plus two will likely be enough to at least have a share in first place.

Now that I’ve put that out there – so that the prediction is bound to fail, allow me to elaborate. Of the 8 players, the top two seeded players stand out for one specific reason. My prediction for top seed Vladimir Kramnik is that he will go all out in round three with White against bottom seed Georg Meier, as well as the next low seed that he faces with White. This ought to give him his plus 2, while at the same time putting on the squeeze in all his other games, happy to pounce on any blunders. At the same time he will be more than happy to split the point in his remaining 5 games. Next, the second highest rated player at the tournament is none other than Mr 50% - Anish Giri. On their own, these two players will be responsible for twelve of the twenty eight games that make up this tournament.

Therefore it is not inconceivable that we will have a 75% draw rate for Dortmund 2018. That equates to seven decisive games. I’ll go out on a limb and predict 6 decisive games across the seven rounds.

Now that we have the predictions out of the way, let’s have a look at how the first two rounds transpired.

In the opening round the biggest potential upset was the game between Nepomniachtchi and Giri on the former’s twenty eighth birthday. Although Giri gifted White a winning position in a Queen endgame, perhaps Nepomniachtchi was still honed in on the half point he was hoping for at the start and failed to convert his opportunity. The result keeps the net score between the two in classical chess at 50% after four games.

Another near escape was in the game between Kramnik and Nisipeanu. The fourteenth World Champion played a line with White that Carlsen had used to crush him at the 2016 Norway Chess Tournament. However, two years is a long time in super GM chess – plenty of time to find a solution to the problems posed by Carlsen back then.

Net outcome of the round was four draws, right on target.

On to round two and the two to seeds did not disappoint at all.

Kramnik, who has won in Dortmund on ten previous occasions, had the Black pieces against the 2017 champion - Radek Wojtaszek. This is their fifth meeting over the board and the fifth consecutive draw.

Second seed Giri had black against football fan Georg Meier on the same day as the World Cup final. Hardly surprising that the point was split and the score sheets were signed in time to order a beer in the bar and watch the teams walk out onto the pitch. Incidentally this was the first game of the day to finish.

That opened the door for the young Polish champion Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Duda has done some serious preparation for Dortmund as seen by his opening round game against Kramnik. In round 2 he uncorked 3.Bb5+ in the Sicilian for the first time ever. The tactic seemed to work as Nisipeanu couldn’t find the line do deal with the problems that Black was posing and in the end gave away a pawn for zero compensation.

That advantage was all Duda needed to convert the full point ruthlessly. 

Nisipeanu,Liviu-Dieter (2672) - Duda,Jan-Krzysztof (2737)

Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2018 Dortmund (2), 15.07.2018

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.0–0 Nf6 6.Re1 Nc6 7.c3 e6 8.d4 cxd4 9.cxd4 d5 10.e5 Ng8 B52: Sicilian: Moscow Variation with 3...Bd7 [10...Ne4 11.Nbd2 Nxd2 12.Bxd2 Be7 13.Rc1 0–0 14.Rc3 Rfc8 15.h4 Bd8 16.Rd3 Qc7 17.Ng5 h6 18.Nh3 Ne7 19.Bc3 b5 20.Nf4 Nf5 21.Qg4 Bxh4 22.Nh5 ½–½ (52) Nakamura,H (2769)-Grischuk,A (2766) Paris 2018] 

11.a3 Nge7 12.Nc3 h5 13.Bg5 Nf5 

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14.Rc1N [14.b4 Be7 15.Bxe7 Qxe7 16.Qd3 g6 17.Rac1 0–0 18.Ne2 0–1 (46) Lagerman,R (2354)-Gunnarsson,J (2437) Reykjavik 2008] 

14...Be7 15.Bxe7 Qxe7 16.Qd3 0–0–0 17.Na4 Kb8 18.Nc5 g5 19.Rc3 [19.b4= remains equal.] 

19...g4 20.Nd2 Ncxd4 21.Rec1 

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21...Rc8! 22.Nf1 Rc6 23.Ng3 Ka8 24.Nxf5 Nxf5 25.b4 Rhc8 26.a4 b6 27.Nb3 Rxc3 28.Rxc3 Rxc3 29.Qxc3 Kb7 30.a5 [30.b5µ war angesagt.] 

30...Qd7 31.Nd4 Nxd4 32.Qxd4 Qc7–+ 0–1