Caruana Sole Leader In Dortmund Before Final Round

GM Fabiano Caruana has excellent chances to win the Sparkassen Chess Meeting for the third time. On Independence Day the new U.S. grandmaster grabbed sole lead by beating GM Hou Yifan — his fourth win in a row.

GM Vladimir Kramnik reached a winning ending against GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu but then let his opponent escape. The other Russian, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, also played a nice ending and he did manage to beat GM Arkadij Naiditsch.

Kramnik has won the tournament in Dortmund ten times — that we know. Caruana might be on his way to challenge this number: if he holds the draw as black against Nisipeanu tomorrow, he'll win his third title, after sharing first with Karjakin in 2012 and winning outright in 2014.

In what was his fourth straight win, Fabiano Caruana today outplayed Hou Yifan from a Sämisch Nimzo-Indian. The Chinese grandmaster sacrificed a pawn in the opening and definitely got some compensation: a bad bishop and c-pawn for White.

Black controlled many squares, and the only way Caruana could improve his position was by pushing his pawns on the kingside. It was only after a small inaccuracy from his opponent that he could force things with a central pawn push.

That meant sole first place for Caruana since Dieter Nisipeanu was never going to win his black game with Vladimir Kramnik. On the contrary, at some point he was lost.

Kramnik played a wonderful positional game based on an IQP (isolated queen's pawn) in the black camp. He managed to win that pawn and then reached a winning rook ending. To everyone's surprise, the great Russian then failed to win it!

The conclusion after my superficial analysis (but later confirmed by Dejan Bojkov) is that he only really spoilt it on move 58.

Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov & Peter Doggers

It was a good day for instructive Russian endings. Ian Nepomniachtchi gave a nice showcase as well against Arkadij Naiditsch, in an ending with rooks and bishop versus knight — one of Bobby Fischer's favorite endgames.

After the trade of queens White was much more active and won a pawn. The white bishop then nicely dominated the knight and when Nepomniachtchi's king joined the party it was all over. 

Georg Meier will have a lot to analyze and reflect upon after this tournament. He reached many promising positions before, and again got a clear advantage out of the opening against Wesley So. 

Especially on move 19 there were several good options. Meier continued with solid moves, but this allowed So to just hold the balance.

On Sunday the tournament starts two hours earlier than the other rounds: at 1pm local time. Nisipeanu, still the only undefeated player in the field, needs to beat Caruana to win the tournament. 

Dortmund 2015 | Schedule & Results

Dortmund 2015 | Round 6 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	SB
1	Caruana,F	2805	2913			1	0	½	1	1	1	4.5/6
2	Nisipeanu,LD	2654	2842			½	1	½	1	½	½	4.0/6
3	Kramnik,V	2783	2764	0	½			1	0	1	1	3.5/6
4	So,W	2778	2706	1	0			1	0	½	½	3.0/6
5	Nepomniachtchi,I	2720	2675	½	½	0	0		1		½	2.5/6	7.75
6	Naiditsch,A	2722	2678	0	0	1	1	0		½		2.5/6	7.50
7	Hou Yifan	2676	2613	0	½	0	½		½		½	2.0/6	5.75
8	Meier,Geo	2654	2616	0	½	0	½	½		½		2.0/6	5.75

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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