Dortmund 2015 - GOTD Round 5

Opening: D78: Neo-Grünfeld, 6.O-O c6

Player(s): Kramnik, Caruana

GM Joel Benjamin recaps Round 5. Kramnik has been known for being a strong positional player, but in the last couple of years he's changed his style radically, and his new style was paying off for him in Dortmund, with three wins in the last three games. Until today, when he decided to press a bit too much to win with Caruana and - had it happened - put a hand on the 11th trophy. But Caruana, with the black pieces, wasn't impressed at all and - though Kramnik missed a golden opportunity to save the game - went on to win. Fabiano and Vladimir swapped position in the standings, which now sees Nisipeanu, who today drew Meier rather quickly, and Caruana leading with 3.5/5, followed by Kramnik with 3. So and Naiditsch at 2.5 points, then Hou Yifan with 2. The other decisive game of the round was So vs. Nepomniachtchi. A strange game, especially in the middle of it, when the players played some unexplicable moves. GM Yasser Seirawan, who was watching the game on ICC, kibitzed "guessing the last three moves by white would be like winning the lottery!" when Wesley played Bd3, Rd1 and Bd2. On the other side of the board, Nepo decided to sac an exchange, which seemes to be not sound at all. Despite some burps, the game went on to be quite interesting, and So managed to win it, getting back to a 50% score. Hou Yifan is having a good event, and today she played a nice game with Naiditsch. At some point the young Chinese GM seemed to get the upper hand, but Naiditsch defended well, eventually getting a better position. Hou Yifan was though able to hold, and drew a great game. With two rounds to go, nothing is decided, but now Kramnik needs to find into himself all the strenght he's capable of, to bounce back and try to win Dortmund once again.

Teacher's library (453) D78 Kramnik Caruana recap