Peter Leko won his 3rd title in Dortmund today. He drew his game against Naiditsch, and not long afterwards his pursuers Nepomniachtchi and Gustafsson did the same. Update with interview Leko.And so it was the solid but powerfull chess of Peter Leko that decided the tournament. He won his Sparkassen title for the third time, while it's "normally" Vladimir Kramnik who ends first. But of course the Hungarian also managed to stay ahead Vassily Ivanchuk, who has shown great form in the last couple of months. Leko beat him in their individual game, which turned out to be crucial for the tournament. Below the games you'll find a lengthy video interview with the tournament winner.Ivanchuk eventually fought himself to a second place, by Kramnik in the last round. The Ukrainian shares the spot with Mamedyarov, Nepomniachtchi and Gustafsson - the four of them ended on "plus one".Naiditsch played OK as well and his fifty percent is fine in this field. And of course his win against Kramnik is enough to remember this tournament with a smile. Talking about Kramnik - the Russian just had a very disappointing tournament. Whenever he made the news it was in a negative way, and both his losses were in his beloved Petroff Defence. This must give Anand a small boost.And then there's Loek van Wely, who scored just two half points in seven games. Just before I left Dortmund, I said to him: "Well, just forget about this tournament as soon as you can." He replied: "Why?" Throughout the weekend, the Dutchman was in quite a good mood and of course this is because he just knows that these kind of tournaments are inevitable with his uncompromising playing style. Surely he'll be back, kicking some ass soon in a new tournament!
(Replay the games in a separa window)
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Leko-Naiditsch
Nepomniachtchi-Gustafsson
Ivanchuk-Kramnik
Van Wely-MamedyarovLinks:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.
Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.
As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”