In 2010 the Dortmund Supertournament consisted of 6 grandmasters competing in a double round robin. It had reached category 20 and Ruslan Ponomariov started with 2 out of 2 against Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik, and later won the tournament. In 2023 he will be one of the top favourites in the Sparkassen A-Open!
His victory over Kramnik in 2010 in particular attracted a lot of attention later on and was awarded the prize for the best game in the volume in Schachinformator. In 2010 he won the International Dortmund Chess Days by a full point. Ponomariov´s greatest and most prominent success was winning the FIDE World Championship title as a 19-year-old in 2002.
In 2021 the always good-humoured Ukrainian last played in the Westfalenhallen and ended up in the midfield of the GM tournament. In 2023, the goal will be to play for victory in the Sparkassen A-Open.
Ponomariov said about the International Dortmund Chess Days 2021: "Besides, I played so many interesting games against world-class players in Dortmund and even learned so much from defeats that some games from Dortmund are among my most special chess games." But he also likes to visit the city of Dortmund again and again, among other things the good gastronomy convinced him.
For the participants in the A-Open, another very special draw awaits and the chance to play against a world champion.