taking place from 28th June to 6th July
The 36th edition of the super tournament in Dortmund, which will take place on 28th June – 6th July at the Dortmund’s Civic Theater, is promising a delightful competition. The tournament format of seven rounds all-play-all will dictate a specific approach to the games. In such a short race, every win could be a breakthrough to the top of the crosstable and every loss could turn a player into tail-ender. One would expect a cautious play with many draws, but we will try to invert this opinion in our next article about participants :)
Before anything else, let’s mention a couple of peculiarities in regard to this event. Dortmund is hosting probably the strongest tournament that is not part of either Grand Slam or Grand Prix. The organizers have partnered with Moscow’s Aeroflot Open to introduce a fantastic custom of inviting the winner of the world’s strongest open tournament. Back in 2002, Dortmund tournament acted as a qualifier for the “World Classical Chess Championship”, a branch established by Garry Kasparov in 1993. Peter Leko won the qualifier and right to challenge Vladimir Kramnik, who by the way, holds the impressive record of eight Dortmund trophies.
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting pairings
Round 1, June 28
1-8 Gustafsson – Kramnik
2-7 Naiditsch – Nepomniachtchi
3-6 Mamedjarov – Leko
4-5 Ivantschuk – Van Wely
Round 2, June 29
8-5 Kramnik – Van Wely
6-4 Leko – Ivanchuk
7-3 Nepomniachtchi – Mamedjarov
1-2 Gustafsson – Naiditsch
Round 3, July 1
2-8 Naiditsch – Kramnik
3-1 Mamedjarov – Gustafsson
4-7 Ivanchuk – Nepomniachtchi
5-6 Van Wely – Leko
Round 4, July 2
8-6 Kramnik – Leko
7-5 Nepomniachtchi – Van Wely
1-4 Gustafsson – Ivanchuk
2-3 Naiditsch – Mamedjarov
Round 5, July 4
3-8 Mamedjarov – Kramnik
4-2 Ivanchuk – Naiditsch
5-1 Van Wely – Gustafsson
6-7 Leko – Nepomniachtchi
Round 6, July 5
8-7 Kramnik – Nepomniachtchi
1-6 Gustafsson – Leko
2-5 Naiditsch – Van Wely
3-4 Mamedjarov – Ivanchuk
Round 7, July 6
4-8 Ivanchuk – Kramnik
5-3 Van Wely – Mamedjarov
6-2 Leko – Naiditsch
7-1 Nepomniachtchi – Gustafsson
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2008 – Players
