Dortmund 2009

“Ich bein ein Dortmunder!” seems to be the rallying call from Russian Vladimir  Kramnik. The former World Champion has won Dortmund eight times in the past,  and after an inauspicious start this year, he found his form of old with a devastating, second half performance to blow the opposition away. 

Kramnik, who has slipped in the rating list to be replaced by Dmitry Jackovenko as the Russian #1, defied his critics with a superb return-to-form performance to finish a full point ahead of his nearest rivals, Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen and Jackovenko,  unbeaten on a plus three score of 6.5/10 to take his ninth Sparkassen Dortmund title - a record that, according to reports, has now been acknowledged as such by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The tournament turned dramatically in favour of Kramnik in round eight as 18-year-old Norwegian Carlsen, who up to this point all but looked set (yet again!) for his first outright victory in a super-tournament, blundered badly with 25 ..Qc7 when his only hope of survival was 25 ...Qc5.  ICC members can follow the analysis of this exciting game below by GM Larry Christiansen.

Final standings: 1. V. Kramnik (Russia), 6.5/10; 2-4. P. Leko (Hungary), M. Carlsen (Norway), D. Jackovenko (Russia), 5.5; 5. E. Bacrot (France), 4; 6. A. Naiditsch (Germany), 3.

The Chess.FM team will be back in action in early August with extensive coverage of the NH Tournament in Amsterdam.

	Dortmund 2009 - Rd 1 Carlsen-Jakovenko July 2, 2009 ECO: C67 Ruy Lopez Run time: 00:15:28
Round 1 free to non-members

Dortmund 2009 (July 2nd - 12th) Date Round Commentator GOTD July 2 1 LarryC(GM) July 3 2 LarryC(GM) July 4 3 Kaidanov(GM) July 5 4 Indiana-Jones(GM) July 6 5 N-DeFirmian(GM) July 8 6 N-DeFirmian(GM) July 9 7 Speelman(GM) July10 8 LarryC(GM) July11 9 N-DeFirmian(GM) July12 10 MrHat(GM)

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