Caruana Beats Kramnik To Share Lead with Nisipeanu In Dortmund

On Friday GM Fabiano Caruana stopped GM Vladimir Kramnik's winning streak as it was his turn to win his third game in a row at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting. With two rounds to go, Caruana leads with GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

GM Wesley So is back to 50 percent after beating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in a Sämisch King's Indian — annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov below.

After five rounds only one player in Dortmund is still undefeated: Liviu-Dieter (by most people simply called Dieter) Nisipeanu. However, the Romanian-born German GM has arguably the toughest possible schedule ahead: Kramnik with black and then Caruana with white.

Whereas he showed very energetic play in the first four rounds, his game on Friday with Georg Meier was a bit dull actually. From a well-known line in the Nimzo-Indian the players reached an ending with opposite-colored bishops and rooks where White's extra pawn was worthless.

The ending is still worth checking out, since Black used some instructive techniques to avoid danger after the rooks were traded.

Solid and instructive play by Georg Meier. | Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer.

This meant that Vladimir Kramnik could have overtaken Nisipeanu to become the sole leader. Instead, the ex-world champion lost to Fabiano Caruana, who won his third game straight.

The game won't feature in a future Kramnik best-games selection. Right out of the opening he played some questionable moves, and before move 20 he was an exchange down.

Luckily for the Russian he got quite some counterplay, and from a certain point White definitely had some kind of fortress. One more mistake by Kramnik was fatal: he should never have moved the knight from its ideal position.

The first move was made by Jenny Schnitter of telecommunication
company DOKOM 21. | Photo Dagobert Kohlmeyer.

The battle between the numbers five and six in the standings was quite interesting too. Via an Anti-Grünfeld Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi reached a Sämisch King's Indian, when Nepomniachtchi suddenly uncorked a novelty as early as move 11.

By move 15 he had moved his queen four times (!) over the e-file, and still Black was absolutely fine around move 20. So much for the classical rules about development!

On move 28 the Russian player could have liquidated to an ending, but that possibility included a deep tactic pointed out by the computer. It would have meant So's third loss, but that didn't happen.

The U.S. GM found some excellent moves (30.Rf3! 31.Kh1!) and started an attack just when his opponent was getting into time trouble. So won a queen, and then the game.

Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov

Hou Yifan is still waiting for her first win. She remains on minus one after drawing with Arkadij Naiditsch, who was the one with winning chances in this game.

Black's 40th move, played quickly, was a mistake. Hou lost a pawn but there was counterplay in an ending with heavy pieces as White's king wasn't completely safe. Naiditsch might have missed some chances in the rook ending.

Dortmund 2015 | Schedule & Results

Dortmund 2015 | Round 5 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	SB
1	Caruana,F	2805	2878			1	1	0		½	1	3.5/5	7.75
2	Nisipeanu,LD	2654	2857				1	1	½	½	½	3.5/5	7.50
3	Kramnik,V	2783	2785	0			0		1	1	1	3.0/5
4	Naiditsch,A	2722	2739	0	0	1		1	½			2.5/5	6.50
5	So,W	2778	2716	1	0		0		½	1		2.5/5	6.00
6	Hou Yifan	2676	2648		½	0	½	½			½	2.0/5
7	Nepomniachtchi,I	2720	2588	½	½	0		0			½	1.5/5	4.25
8	Meier,G	2654	2581	0	½	0			½	½		1.5/5	3.50

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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