Kramnik Wins Again In Dortmund, Catches Nisipeanu

On Wednesday GM Vladimir Kramnik won his third game in a row at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting and caught GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in first place. The ex-world champion beat GM Georg Meier with Black.

One more win and we might have to call him “M.r Dortmund” again. He started with a loss, but after four rounds, GM Vladimir Kramnik can be found at the top of the leaderboard in Dortmund.

Last year he also started with a loss, with White to GM Georg Meier, and finished a very disappointing tournament on 2.5/7 without scoring a single win. This year Kramnik has already won three times — more than anyone.

Whatever the situation, Kramnik will always be Kramnik. He defended with the Berlin, even though it allows the very drawish 5.Re1 line.

Luckily for him, Meier used it to play for a win, as his 19.g4!? suggested. The German GM played a good game and was better for a while, but then lost an exchange and stumbled eventually.

Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov

Kramnik wins three in a row! | Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer.

Kramnik now joins first place with GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who drew his game with GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. The tournament leader was well prepared for 4.h4!? in the Advance Caro-Kann — one of Nepomniachtchi's pet lines.

The game left theory with 14.c5, a move used to gain space on the queenside. White continued with a2-a4 and b2-b4, but Black was just in time to respond with ...a7-a5!, which held off White's initiative. After a tactical sequence, with lots of trades, a drawn rook ending appeared on the board.

“Of course I wouldn't have thought of such a start, and sharing the lead at halftime. I don't think about tournament victory, a minute a day at most!” joked Nisipeanu, who is the only player in the field still undefeated. “I just enjoy playing against these great opponents. It's a good workout for the FIDE World Cup in September.”

It was at a World Cup where Nisipeanu scored his career's best result. In 1999 he made it to the semifinals in Las Vegas, beating Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov along the way. With two other players he was famously called a “chess tourist” by Garry Kasparov at the time.

Nisipeanu holds the draw and remains undefeated. | Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer. 

Besides Kramnik, one more player hasn't played a single draw yet: GM Arkadij Naiditsch. He beat Kramnik and So, but lost to Nisipeanu and yesterday to GM Fabiano Caruana.

In an Open Catalan the German player was very close to equalizing, but as soon as White took control of the c5-square, there was something to play for. In time trouble, Naiditsch underestimated the white pawns.

No draw for Naiditsch yet. | Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer.

GM Hou Yifan and GM Wesley So continue to be on minus one.  Especially for So that must be disappointing; he's lost 8.5 Elo points so far. In a 4...Bf5 Caro-Kann the U.S. grandmaster was on the wrong side of the draw; if anyone was better it was Hou.

Two Caro-Kanns, two correct draws. | Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer. 

Thursday is the second and final rest day. Rounds 5-7 will be played Friday-Sunday.

Dortmund 2015 | Schedule & Results

Dortmund 2015 | Round 4 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	SB
1	Nisipeanu,Liviu-Dieter	2654	2914				1	1	½	½		3.0/4	5.00
2	Kramnik,Vladimir	2783	2883				0		1	1	1	3.0/4	4.00
3	Caruana,Fabiano	2805	2807				1	0	½		1	2.5/4
4	Naiditsch,Arkadij	2722	2755	0	1	0		1				2.0/4
5	So,Wesley	2778	2626	0		1	0			½		1.5/4	3.25
6	Nepomniachtchi,Ian	2720	2636	½	0	½					½	1.5/4	3.25
7	Hou,Yifan	2676	2629	½	0			½			½	1.5/4	2.75
8	Meier,Georg	2654	2556		0	0			½	½		1.0/4

The 43rd Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place June 27-July 5 in the NRW Orchestra Center in central Dortmund. It is a single round robin with eight players. | Thanks to Dagobert Kohlmeyer | Games via TWIC  

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