Nepomniachtchi Maintains Dortmund Lead In Dramatic Round

By surviving a lost position, Ian Nepomniachtchi kept his lead going into the last round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. 

Vladimir Kramnik suffered his second straight loss. He overpressed, and got outplayed by Anish Giri in an endgame. Georg Meier scored his first win, vs Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. 

It was a narrow escape for tournament leader Nepomniachtchi, who had been outplayed by Duda, was two pawns down and basically waiting for his opponent to deliver the decisive blow. But it didn't come.

A tough one for Duda, who had played like Karpov in his best 1.e4 days up to that point.

An important save by Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Duda was not the only one leaving the round with a bitter feeling. Vladimir Kramnik suffered an unnecessary loss as well, after avoiding the draw a few times. Anish Giri had played a good game, and around move 30 it was time to call it a day.

Instead, Kramnik continued playing aggressively, but it all backfired. Giri ended up with two connected passed pawns on the queenside, and after defending accurately against White's threats, this pawn duo decided the game.

Kramnik might have been over-optimistic again. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Georg Meier had started with five solid draws, and his tournament got even better as he won in round six. At the same time, this edition of Dortmund has become a disaster for Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who lost his fourth game. 

Thanks to excellent preparation Meier got a clearly better position out of the opening. "I didn't want to have to settle for draw so easily, like against Kovalev, so I decided to look at the main line a bit more in the last few days."

That worked out well, and with an early tactic he won material. The technical phase was no problem either.

A disastrous tournament for Nisipeanu. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Radek Wojtaszek and Vladislav Kovalev played a Catalan that turned into a kind of Tarrasch Queen's Gambit after Black played the new move 8...c5. White got the better pawn structure and managed to keep an advantage, but Wojtaszek said that he missed the move 30.Bf3! after which things petered out into a draw.

Wojtaszek vs Kovalev. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Dortmund 2018 | Round 6 Standings

Pairings last round, Sunday, July 22 at 1 p.m. (4 a.m. Pacific, 7 a.m. Eastern): Nepomniachtchi-Meier, Giri-Duda, Kovalev-Kramnik, Nisipeanu-Wojtaszek. You can follow the games in Live Chess.

Games via TWIC.

Earlier posts:

• Nepomniachtchi Beats Teammate Kramnik Brilliantly: Dortmund R5
• Kramnik Shows Duda Who's Boss In Dortmund R4
• No Doubt In Dortmund: Duda Is The Real Thing
• Rising Polish Star Duda Grabs Dortmund Lead
• Dortmund R1: Nepomniachtchi Declines Giri's Birthday Gift
• 14th World Champion Kramnik, Giri Favorites As Top Chess Returns In Dortmund