Kramnik, So Go Down In First Round Dortmund

Both GMs Vladimir Kramnik and Wesley So suffered a loss in the first round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany. Kramnik went down against GM Arkadij Naiditsch whereas So lost to GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

Photo courtesy of Sparkassen Chess

The 43rd edition of the annual chess tournament, now sponsored for the 20th time by Sparkassen, took off on Saturday. The tournament takes place 27 June - 5 July in the NRW Orchestra Center in central Dortmund.

It is a single round robin with eight players, five being rated above 2700 (and one above 2800):

2015 Sparkassen Chess Meeting | Participants

Sometimes called “Mr Dortmund,” Vladimir Kramnik  has won the tournament already ten times — last, in 2011. His first-round loss won't make it easy to add an 11th title.

Michael Adams won in 2013. Fabiano Caruana, who travelled straight from Stavanger to Dortmund (and had to skip the closing dinner and prize giving on Friday evening), is defending his title in Dortmund. He tied for first with Sergey Karjakin in 2012.

Wesley So missed out on the Grand Chess Tour because his match with David Navara had been planned before. Although not officially confirmed yet, it seems certain that he'll play in the Sinquefield Cup, but before that we see him in Dortmund this week.

Ian Nepomniachtchi, who qualified by winning the Aeroflot Open, might have to fight against a jetlag as he came straight from the Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba. Hou Yifan is the first female player in the Dortmund field since 1997, when Judit Polgar played.

Traditionally there are some local heros, and this counts especially for Arkadij Naiditsch, who is from Dortmund. 

After the first round it seems more likely that Naiditsch will repeat his success from 2005, when he sensationally won the tournament at 19, than that Kramnik will score his 11th title. Naiditsch beat Kramnik with the black pieces.

The German GM tackled Kramnik in his own territory: the Semi-Tarrasch. In fact the two followed the game Ding Liren-Kramnik, Paris 2013 for 14 moves when Naiditsch played the novelty 14...a5. Combined with 15...e5, he created a nice square for his knight on c5.

Soon the position became very concrete, and on move 24 Kramnik either miscalculated or sacrificed a piece for which he didn't get enough compensation.

Another German GM, originally from Romania, did even better. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu crushed Wesley So from a Grand Prix Attack, where White's novelty on move 12 refuted Black's setup completely.

It can be described as a long-term piece sacrifice, since that knight on g7 was never going to make it back home. But Nisipeanu had evaluated correctly that White's initiative would be too strong. 

Nepomniachtchi vs Caruana was a game between two players who had just finished another strong tournament, so they may not have been too fit. It was a Fianchetto Grünfeld where White's play was not aggressive enough; Black was better out of the opening. Caruana won a pawn, but it was a tripled one.

Georg Meier vs Hou Yifan was a very quiet Catalan where White's small edge consisted of controlling the open c-file and more space on the queenside. When a center pawn was traded for a queenside pawn White's advantage seemed to grow, but Hou kept on defending accurately.

Dortmund 2015 | Schedule & Results