On Thursday there was only one match on stage in the Gold Hall: the two winners from the previous day Dmitrij Kollars and Viswanathan Anand met in the NC World Masters.
Anand with precise defence in a rook ending
Both were victorious the day before and wanted to take the momentum with them. Kollars played an interesting opening idea in which he played f3 early and wanted to give his king the option to move to f2 again. Anand responded with a variation that forced the exchange of queens. Kollars had a slight advantage in the resulting rook ending, but Anand defended very carefully. So the game ended in a draw and after half of the tournament Vishy Anand is in the lead with half a point ahead of Dmitrij Kollars and Michael Adams.
Great impressions in short video form can be found here, by the way:
Lara Schulze with a winning streak in the Sportland NRW Women's Cup
Lara Schulze scored her third win in a row in the closed women's tournament of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2022. For the second day in a row, she played a modern pawn sacrifice in the Advance Variation of the French Defence with White. Honorata Kucharska's long castling was probably not a good choice. The black king was never safe and Schulze played a beautiful attacking game. This gives her a one-point lead with 5 out of 6. Apart from the tournament win, it's about a WGM norm for her, which is 7 points from 9 games.
In the Sportland NRW Youth Cup, the top pairing was up for grabs on Thursday: Artem Lutsko came out of the opening with Black quite well, but let inaccuracies follow in the middlegame. IM Jonathan Carlstedt was able to build up a king's attack with his heavy pieces and won the game: Carlstedt - Lutsko
Ranking:
1. Carlstedt 4,5 / 6
2.-4. Lutsko 3,5 / 6
2.-4. Costa 3,5 / 6
2.-4. Bethke 3,5 / 6
Warmerdam leads ahead of Beerdsen
GM Max Warmerdam went into the top pairing against GM Tornike Sanikidze very well prepared. Early on Warmerdam had the advantage. Sanikidze complicated the game, but the Dutchman kept the overview and is now the only player in the A-Open with 6 out of 6. On board 2 IM Thomas Beerdsen played a strong game against GM Dr. Florian Handke and won with Black: Handke - Beerdsen
Beerdsen is now the sole second player, half a point behind Warmerdam, and there will probably be a Dutch duel on the first board tomorrow.
In the Sparkassen Open B the young Ukrainian Artem Dyachuk continues to dominate with also 6 out of 6. Also in the B-Open there is only one chaser with 5.5 points: Niels Wenning challenges Dyachuk with White tomorrow at 10:30 am.
On Friday the stage will be filled again at 3 pm. In the NC World Masters, Anand with White meets Kollars. In the German Grand Prix the two leaders meet: Luke McShane against Pavel Eljanov!
Live commentary will be provided as always: Dortmund Chess Channel