Dortmund Round 1 pairings

The annual Dortmund tournament starts today, 28 June, as previewed recently here.  Dortmund will be the last serious test for Vladimir Kramnik (pictured) before his world title shot against Vishy Anand in October.

Dortmund has been a very happy hunting ground for Kramnik through the years and he is very much the man to beat again, but the rejuvenated 39-year old Vassily Ivanchuk might have something to say about that.

In a relatively short event like this one (just 7 rounds), all of the players have a chance and it will be particularly interesting to see how the 17 year-old Russian Aeroflot qualifier Ian Nepomniachtchi plays.

The pairings for the first round of this single round-robin event are:

Games start at 3pm local time ( 9a.m. EDT).