What an opening from the World Champion! Perfectly prepared he went into the game against Daniel Fridman in the NC World Masters. He took a close look at the Bochum player's opening game against Michael Adams and improved with 6.Ke2.
In the interview, he explains his game himself in the post mortem:
The second game in No Castling Chess also found a deserved winner: Dmitrij Kollars recovered perfectly from his defeat the day before. He brought his king to f2 and all the pieces actively into play. Adams, on the other hand, had big problems with his rook on h8. In the end, the rook had to move to h8, his own king to h7 and in the centre Kollars basically played with one more rook. He confidently wrapped up in a won endgame.
Kollars is particularly looking forward to his duels with Viswanathan Anand in the next two days. Tomorrow at 3 pm there will be this top game on stage - then with Kollars as the white player. So far Anand is unbeaten in all official No Castling Chess games. Kollars will try to change that.
Eljanow and McShane put on pressure in German Grand Prix
Last year's winner Pavel Eljanov from Ukraine and Englishman Luke McShane got off to the best start in the Grandmaster tournament. On Wednesday, too, both were in control: McShane gained a small advantage against Erwin L'Ami, Eljanow against Bogdan-Daniel Deac. But L'Ami and Deac both held the endgames in commanding draws. The duel between the German national players Svane and Blübaum also ended peacefully. Tomorrow there will be a rest day in the German Grand Prix.
Change of leadership in the NRW Cup
The fifth round shook up the standings. Artem Lutsko beat the previous leader FM Christoph Dahl. In a Najdorf-Sicilian, Dahl played the typical piece sacrifice Nd5, which didn't pay off and Lutsko converted the material. IM Jonathan Carlstedt scored his second win of the tournament against the youngest participant in the field. So the top 3 are now as follows:
1. Lutsko 3.5 / 5
2. Carlstedt 3,5 / 5
3. Dahl 3 / 5
In the Sportland NRW Women´s Cup, FM Lara Schulze was able to continue her run. The opening was very complex and objectively Anastasiya Rakhmangulova had an advantage with her extra pawn. But practically Schulze caused her problems and was able to win the game with 43.c4! - Schulze - Rakhmangulova
Grandmasters Warmerdam and Sanikidze lead in Sparkassen Open A
The two grandmasters were able to beat the two German International Masters Julian Kramer and Adrian Gschnitzer in the top pairings of the A Open. So it will come to a top duel in the sixth round.
IM Thomas Beerdsen also seems to be in top form. He is now at 4.5 / 5 and won the fifth round in an attack against L'Ami defeater Alexey Wagner: Beerdsen - Wagner