Today, Saturday, five events of the 49th International Dortmund Chess Days kicked off with a total of 493 active players, from beginners to top grandmasters.
The event started at 10:30 with the Sparkassen Open B. 234 players turned up for the tournament, which is aimed at players up to a rating of 1900. In the first round there were already the first surprises on the first ten boards:
Daniel Aziz won on the first board against the top seed Peter Becker.
Lukas Benedikt Mücke surprisingly scored full points on board 7.
Florian Schlefers and Tom Niklas Arnz scored half points on boards 5 and 8 against players who were clearly higher seeded.
Otherwise, many favourites won the first round. Tomorrow, the second round continues at 10:30 am.
At 2 pm the first preliminary round of the Sparkassen NC Online Open took place on lichess.org. Here, every player gets the chance to try out the exciting mode "No Castling Chess". In summery temperatures on Saturday, 56 players from all over the world took advantage of this and played a 7-round Swiss System tournament. The overwhelming winner was Jonas Gallasch with 6.5/7 points. The next chance to qualify for the final is on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. - the final will be about the qualification for the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2023 including an overnight stay in the players' hotel.
The Sportland NRW Youth Cup went into the first round. In the 10-player tournament only 4 instead of the usual 5 games were played today, the game GM Bagrationi - IM Carlstedt will be made up for one morning.
But there was action enough in the four games played - the first decided game was Richard Bethke - Christoph Dahl (photo). In a sharp Sicilian game, White perhaps took the motto of "No Castling Chess" a little too closely and came under fire in the middlegame with the king on f1. Christoph Dahl won his game in beautiful style after a piece sacrifice.
Leonardo Costa and Artem Lutsko were rewarded for their fighting attitude in the endgame and each won endgames after a long fight. Thus there were three Black victories on the first day:
Leonard - Costa 0-1
Nurgaliev - Lutsko 0-1
Bethke - Dahl 0-1
O'Gorman - Vrolijk drawn
At the same time, the Sportland NRW Cup for women started with the 10 participants. This is the only tournament with a chance of a WGM norm on German soil this year.
Anna Zozulia (photo) had a winning chance with Black against Katharina Ricken, but couldn't make use of it, so the game ended in a draw. The favourite IM Zoya Schleining did better, winning a technically strong game.
The second winner of the day was Hanne Goossens. Just like Christoph Dahl, she took advantage of the fact that her opponent did not castle in the game, pinned down the white king and won in the king's attack.
Doluhanova - Rakhmangulova draw
Ricken - Zozulia draw
Schulze - Nutakki draw
Kucharska - Schleining 0-1
Tsakona - Goossens 0-1
Parallel to the two round-robin tournaments, the strong Sparkassen Open A runs daily. Here the 2600 Grandmasters Erwin L'Ami and Max Warmerdam had their opener today in the Goldsaal of the Westfalenhallen. Both won their games confidently. But the first round already showed many tough fights in the strong A-Open and some surprises. The first 12 boards will be broadcast live every day this year: Live broadcast A-Open.
Tomorrow the sixth event of the 49th International Dortmund Chess Days will start: The Germany Grand Prix will run from 3 pm and will be accompanied live by GM Artur Jussupow and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni from Dortmund.