The Week in Chess

There is a very different feel to the Dortmund Chess tournament this year as it has switched from an elite 6 player tournament to a more mixed 10 player event. Today we saw the top players show why they are higher rated. Ruslan Ponomariov beat Georg Meier with black getting a big advantage on the kingside which he eventually finished off with a sacrificial attack in probably the most interesting game of the day. Vladimir Kramnik beat tail-ender Mateusz Bartel by winning a pawn and then converting it in an ending which might have been trickier for a lesser player. Peter Leko got a huge positional advantage just out of the opening against Jan Gustafsson and then inflicted a lot of suffering on his opponent before converting. Fabiano Caruana had to break down a pretty solid setup by Daniel Fridman (who must have been fine at some point) to win a very nice ending. Sergey Karjakin was eventually held by Arkadij Naiditsch in a solid Berlin Defence. Ponomariov and Kramnik lead on 2.5/3.