The Dortmund super-GM tournament starts today!

The Sparkassen Dortmund Chess festival will take place from the 15th to the 25th of July.
Vladimir Kramnik is the main star and favourite of the featured tournament a six-player double-round robin over ten rounds.

There is a new rule this year, as draws by mutual consent will be forbidden! Draws can only be accepted if material is insufficent, or by a threefold repetition. I assume that Stalemate and the fifty-move rule are also acceptable! The organizer presumably hopes that this will mean fighting chess for the spectator.

I personally predict that when the players recognize that winning chances are minimal they will 'engineer a repetition by mutual consent'!

The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes to finish. There will also be an incremental 30 seconds added from move 1. So plenty of time to contemplate that draws are not welcome!

NameCountryRating
Vladimir,KramnikRUS2790
Shakhriyar,MamedyarovAZE2761
Ruslan,PonomariovUKR2734
Peter,LekoHUN2734
Arkadij,NaiditschGER2684
Quang Liem, LeVIE2681

It's good to see Le Quang Liem being given a chance at this level.

1st round pairing

NameRatingCountryResultNameRatingCountryOpening
Ruslan Ponomariov2734UKR1-0 Peter Leko2734HUNScotch Opening (Mieses)
Vladimir Kramnik2790RUS0.5-0.5Le Quang Liem2681VIESlav Defence (Main line)
Arkadij Naiditsch2684GER0-1Shakhriyar Mamedyarov2761AZESicilian Defence (Sozin)

The sharpest opening was Naiditsch's aggressive Sozin against Mamedyarov's Najdorf.

For more information see the Official site


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