Monday, August 1, 2011

Kramnik Writing History in Dortmund


Vladimir Kramnik Writing History in Dortmund
Kramnik convincingly wins the event and claims his 10th Dortmund trophy

Despite the loss in the final round, ex World Champion Vladimir Kramnik convincingly won the 39th Dortmund Chess Meeting, point and a half clear of the second placed Le Quang Liem. An impressive achievement as this is Kramnik's 10th Dortmund trophy. He first won the event back in 1995 as a 20-years-old.

Dortmund stage is so dear to Kramnik's heart that he even skipped the World Team Chess Championship where his country Russia narrowly lost the medal in the last round. Seeing that Kramnik is in fantastic form, Russia's already former captain Evgeny Bareev must be blaming the calendar clash for the team's bad luck. Bareev resigned from the post Monday, more information coming soon.

Sparkassen Chess-Meeting used the widely accepted six-player double round robin tournament system. Le Quang Liem of Vietnam qualified as the winner of the world's strongest open tournament Aeroflot 2011 and succeeded in taking second place behind Kramnik. The hosting country was represented by GM Georg Meier.

Final standings:

1.Kramnik Vladimir (RUS 2781) - 7.0
2. Le Quang Liem (VIE 2715) - 5½
3-4. Ponomariov Ruslan (UKR 2764) and Giri Anish (NED 2701) - 5.0
5. Nakamura Hikaru (USA 2770) - 4½
6. Meier Georg (GER 2656) - 3.0

IM Robin van Kampen (NED 2519) won the Helmut-Kohls-Turnier with 6.5 points from 9 games. The Dortmund B-Group was a 10-players round robin event.

Official website