Pavel Eljanov with entertaining queen sacrifice against Ponomariov

While the match between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand had a rest day, the round robin tournaments of the 48th International Dortmund Chess Days were running on Friday. In the Deutschland Grand Prix, the Polish grandmaster Mateusz Bartel had a difficult time so far, but now he could land a nice attacking win with Black against Andreas Heimann. Heimann's king was pinned in the centre from the Catalan opening and Bartel won quickly.

Sparkassen Chess Trophy with spectacular second day

The first game in the NC World Masters of the 48th International Dortmund Chess Days was opened by the Chairman of the Board of Sparkasse Dortmund under the eyes of Mayor Norbert Schilff for the 15th World Chess Champion Vishy Anand against the 14th World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik.

Eljanov leads the Deutschland Grand Prix ahead of strong German players

The two living legends have been playing the first NC World Masters since yesterday with classical thinking time in the innovative mode of chess without castling. After the defeat in the opening round, Kramnik led with White on Thursday and opened with 1.c4 just like Anand the day before. On move six Anand played with 6…e5 an idea he had encountered in his match preparation. Kramnik reacted with an early queen exchange and tried everything to extend his small optical advantage in the middlegame.

Fridman and Kollars start with victories

The first round in the ten-strong field of grandmasters in the Deutschland Grand Prix and the two Sportland NRW Cups started on Tuesday with the opening move by Stefan Koth, who led the tournament for 20 years as tournament director and now works as managing director of the "Initiative Pro Schach" in the event team. The opening move was made at the board by the two youngest grandmasters: 16-year-old Vincent Keymer led the white pieces against German Dmitrij Kollars. The two played a combative game, which Kollars won in beautiful style with a king's attack after a changeable middlegame.

The local hero Daniel Fridman, who lives in Bochum, had a perfect start. With the black pieces, the opening phase already went his way and in the middlegame he was able to collect some pawns from Mateusz Bartel. So the endgame was then an easy exercise for the long-time national player and he led it to victory without any problems.