Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, arguably had his best performance in over a decade with some sensational play throughout to take outright first place. He dominated from start to finish with a +3 winning score of 6.5/10 to take the title - all of which equated to over 15 rating points to move him back once again into the top ten in the world rankings.
Another notable breakthrough performance came from 19-year-old surprise package Le Quang Liem of Vietnam who, playing in his first elite tournament, came in second on his own. He qualified for Dortmund by winning the ũberstrong Aeroflot Open in Moscow earlier in the year, just a week after winning the strong Moscow Open - so he has had a formidable outing in those three tournaments!
Former World Champion Vladmir Kramnik of Russia is, at 35, the oldest in the field followed by Peter Leko of Hungary who, at 30, are the veterans that simply had a horrid time of it against a newer generation who - perhaps influenced by Magnus Carlsen - do not fear the old guard so much these days.
Kramnik, thanks to a last round win over Shak Mamedyariov of Azerbaijan, did though manage to salvage a 50% score - but it is all a far cry from a player of his calibre, who was the big pre-tournament favorite to add to his 9 Dortmund titles. Leko's time at the top though may be ending. The former world title challenger suffered his third wooden spoon in top level tournaments in the past 12 months, and we now see him plummet outside the top 25 in the live rating list.
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