Dortmund 2017

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Avatar of fabelhaft

The Dortmund tournament starts this weekend, and the Chessbase preview mentions more than once how strong the line-up is. But to me it feels as if the tournament used to be stronger. Back in 2001 all the participants were top 10, with Topalov (who shared first with Kramnik) the lowest rated player in the field. Still Topalov already then had won his share of top tournaments.

This is Kramnik's opposition this year:

Bluebaum

Fedoseev

Wang Yue

Nisipeanu

Andreikin

Wojtaszek

MVL

That is, the only opponent in the top 20 is #8 MVL. So the tournament ought to be a two horse race between Kramnik and MVL. The highest rated player after them is Wojtaszek, currently #24, but in spite of his rather high rating he has never scored a great result in a top field. Wang Yue is no longer one of the top five Chinese players, even if he maybe was their top prospect a decade ago. Andreikin and Nisipeanu have their share of strong tournaments, but rarely with top results. Fedoseev and Bluebaum are promising, but with much left to prove before anyone will expect them to win an event like this.

Kramnik could with a great score in Dortmund even reach #1 on the rating list. At the same time it has been many years since he won a classical only tournament. Maybe it's time for that now. Kramnik has four whites in the seven rounds, one of them against main opponent MVL. Kramnik starts with white against Fedoseev in the first round on Saturday and ends with white against Bluebaum in the final round. The main game of the event, Kramnik vs MVL, is played in the fifth round.

 

Avatar of MSC157

@fabelhaft did an amazing recap on what's up in this year's edition. Personally, I really hope Kramnik makes an outstanding result, though I'd bet on MVL (not sure why, maybe due to results last year, when MVL won convincingly in front of Kramnik, Caruana and then all the others).

If anyone wants to make a concrete prediction (OP included Tongue Out), feel free to submit it right here below ("Tournament Prediction Game" Smile): 

https://goo.gl/forms/SWJZnn0GmGJA7ccw2

Avatar of fabelhaft

Pairings:

Round 1, July 15

Nisipeanu - Blubaum
Vachier-Lagrave - Wojtaszek
Yue - Andreikin
Kramnik - Fedoseev

Round 2, July 16

Blubaum - Fedoseev
Andreikin - Kramnik
Wojtaszek - Yue
Nisipeanu - Vachier-Lagrave

Round 3, July 18

Vachier-Lagrave - Blubaum
Yue - Nisipeanu
Kramnik - Wojtaszek
Fedoseev - Andreikin

Round 4, July 19

Blubaum - Andreikin
Wojtaszek - Fedoseev
Nisipeanu - Kramnik
Vachier-Lagrave - Yue

Round 5, July 21

Yue - Blubaum
Kramnik - Vachier-Lagrave
Fedoseev - Nisipeanu
Andreikin - Wojtaszek

Round 6, July 22

Blubaum - Wojtaszek
Nisipeanu - Andreikin
Vachier-Lagrave - Fedoseev
Yue - Kramnik

Round 7, July 23

Kramnik - Blubaum
Fedoseev - Yue
Andreikin - Vachier-Lagrave
Wojtaszek - Nisipeanu

Avatar of fabelhaft

Not a good start for Kramnik, he played something reminding of a coffeehouse attack and had a lost position with white already after 18 moves, even if he held out almost until move 30 before resigning. Quite uncharacteristic game for Kramnik, maybe he was thinking too much about needing wins to have a chance for that #1 spot for which he needs a +4 score.

Avatar of fabelhaft

Also in round 2 Kramnik played a bit below his best. GM Gustafsson said he never had seen someone play such a weak opening with white before as Andreikin did, or something to that effect... Anyway, Kramnik quickly got a very good position already before move 10 with black, but it slowly evaporated and the game was eventually drawn. Still very open, and the field is comparatively weak. If Kramnik just can win with white against Wojtaszek in the next round he would still have decent chances to win the tournament.

Avatar of fabelhaft

Round 3 was a rather tame effort by Kramnik, who never got anything with white against Wojtaszek and the game could have been drawn much earlier than it was. Before the tournament most of the talk was about if Kramnik would reach #1, but this is no longer possible. Winning the tournament again is still quite possible. One point behind leader Bluebaum and white against him in the last round. But Kramnik needs to improve both to win the tournament and reach one of the rating spots for the Candidates.

Avatar of fabelhaft

Round 4 another all draws round but not exactly boring. Still only three decisive games this far and I think +1 may be enough for shared first in the end. If Kramnik can win at least his last round games against Wang Yue and Bluebaum he will have chances to get his 11th Dortmund title.

Avatar of MSC157

C'mon Kramnik! :D

Avatar of fabelhaft

Kramnik in sole last place with two rounds to go... Quite unexpected in this weak field, and not a good game against MVL either, he got in both time and board trouble and was maybe fortunate that MVL went for a rook sacrifice line with many forced moves.

Kramnik is still my favourite to win the tournament. He has two players in the 2600s that he normally beats left to play. OK, Wang Yue is 2699 but only played one game all year before this event and should be rusty against top opposition. Then white against Bluebaum after that. My guess is that Kramnik wins both games and the tournament, but it has been a rather tame Dortmund.

Avatar of fabelhaft

Another all draws round, and Kramnik never got anything against Wang Yue. The discussions before the tournament concerned if he could score +4 or +5 and reach #1 on the rating list, but things haven't gone according to plan at all. It would surprise if he at least doesn't win his last round game with white against Bluebaum though, to reach an even score and avoid last place.

It really looked as if this year's Dortmund could get Kramnik his first super tournament in six years, but maybe it isn't too surprising that he doesn't win it after all. Compared to Aronian his results are much too even. Aronian is maybe not better than Kramnik, but still has 8-0 in super tournament wins since 2012 thanks to either being in super or horrible shape. As a comparison Kramnik's results in his ten latest super tournaments in classical chess, before the last round here:

Dortmund 2017: -1
Norway 2017: +1
Gashimov 2017: +1
London 2016: +1
Tal 2016: =
Dortmund 2016: +1
Norway 2016: +1
Dortmund 2015: =
Gashimov 2015: -1
Zurich 2015: =

Avatar of MSC157

No chance for everyone being tied forr 1st place anymore :/

Avatar of fabelhaft

Well, it hasn't been the most memorable Dortmund ever, looks like Wojtaszek will win with a +1 score...

Avatar of fabelhaft

Wojtaszek won in the last round so he ended up first with +2, closest followed by Fedoseev and MVL, while Kramnik finished with a nice win against Bluebaum to get fourth place (his eighth super tournament in a row with an equal or +1 result). In spite of a fun last round not the most exciting Dortmund ever, but Wojtaszek did well and could even have won a couple of games more if things had been going his way.

Avatar of fabelhaft

This could be the greatest tournament result for a Polish player (Najdorf became Argentinian during World War II) since Liege 1930. Then Sultan Khan started with six straight wins before drawing with black against Rubinstein. And in spite of it only being four rounds left after that, Tartakower managed to win with a margin of two full points. Nimzo and Marshall and many other quite decent players also participated:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79448

 

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