Tight Contest As Dortmund Nears Close
The fight for victory in the Dortmund tournament is extremely close with just two round remaining.
At the top of the standings there is still a three-way tie for first place, with Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Arkadij Naiditsch (pictured) all having 4½ points.
Naiditsch joined the leaders thanks to a win over Jan Gustafsson in round six, while former co-leader Ruslan Ponomariov blundered against backmarker Matesuz Bartel and now trails half a point behind the leaders. All games in round seven were drawn, including a gruelling 134 move clash between former world championship rivals Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko.
The standings after seven rounds:
| # | Name | Nat | Elo | Pts |
| 1 | Naiditsch, Arkadij | GER | 2700 | 4.5 |
| 2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2799 | 4.5 |
| 3 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2779 | 4.5 |
| 4 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2726 | 4.0 |
| 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2775 | 4.0 |
| 6 | Leko, Peter | HUN | 2730 | 4.0 |
| 7 | Meier, Georg | GER | 2644 | 3.5 |
| 8 | Fridman, Daniel | GER | 2655 | 2.5 |
| 9 | Bartel, Mateusz | POL | 2674 | 2.0 |
| 10 | Gustafsson, Jan | GER | 2629 | 1.5 |
.
Ruslan Ponomariov suffered a setback in round six
.
.
Arkadij Naiditsch joined the leaders with a win against Jan Gustafsson
.
.
Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko at the start of their marathon game
.
.
The pairings for round eight (Saturday 21 July, 15:00 UTC):
| Gustafsson | v | Ponomariov |
| Fridman | v | Naiditsch |
| Leko | v | Bartel |
| Caruana | v | Kramnik |
| Meier | v | Karjakin |
.
The pairings for round nine (Sunday 22 July, 13:00 UTC):
| Karjakin | v | Gustafsson |
| Ponomariov | v | Fridman |
| Naiditsch | v | Leko |
| Bartel | v | Caruana |
| Kramnik | v | Meier |
.
The time control is 40 moves in 100 minutes, then 20 moves in 50 minutes, and then 15 minutes to finish with a 30 second increment from the start of the game.
Follow the games live here.
Photos: Georgios Souleidis.
