Wojtaszek Claims Dortmund 2017 Title

Many congratulations to Polish Grandmaster, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, who won the 2017 edition of the prestigious Dortmund Sparkassen tournament over the weekend. The tournament was held between July 15^th and 23^rd, in Dortmund, Germany.

The Grandmaster tournament saw Vladimir Kramnik (2812) as top seed, just ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2791). Along with Wojtaszek (2736), the rest of the field was made up of: Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2683), Wang Yue (2699), Dmitry Andreikin (2712), Matthias Blübaum (2642) and Vladimir Fedoseev (2726).

The tournament saw eight decisive games out of the twenty-eight played and this left things rather open. Vladimir Kramnik’s standing as the ratings favourite took a knock in the very first round. The former World Champion was defeated by Vladimir Fedoseev. Kramnik didn’t manage to recover his position from here, drawing his games before taking his one and only win in the final round. This was by far the most savage round, seeing every game decided.

Wojtaszek went into this round on 3.5/6, a half point ahead of almost all of his competitors. Infact, only Kramnik trailed by more, his first round loss proving very costly and leaving him on 2.5/6. With so many potential spoilers, Radoslaw found himself having to win his final round game against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in order to be assured of victory.

He would have the White pieces at least, could he make it count?

The answer was yes. With the game verging on equality, Nissipeanu’s 21…Nd7(?) was a serious slip. It saw Wojtaszek’s 22.f6(!) and this was the beginning of troubles. It seems that Black had to try a sacrifice of the exchange in order to fight, but took up quite a passive defence instead. When sacrifices did come, it was too late and they did not impact the situation.

This win gave Radoslaw Wojtaszek the tournament victory on 4.5/7. Just behind him were Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Kramnik-slayer, Vladimir Fedoseev on 4.0/7.

As for Kramnik, himself, I should think that he finished the tournament with an element of relief. He had been lying in last place going into the round, but thanks to his victory over Matthias Blübaum, he was able to improve to a much more respectable position. In the end, he was just a point behind Wojtaszek. This left the rest to bring up the rear.

Final Standings

Wojtaszek — 4.5
Fedoseev, Vachier-Lagrave — 4.0
Kramnik — 3.5
Blübaum, Andreikin, Nisipeanu, Wang Yue — 3.0

  [Event "45th GM 2017"]  [Site "Dortmund GER"]  [Date "2017.07.23"]  [Round "7"]  [White "Wojtaszek,R"]  [Black "Nisipeanu,LD"]  [Result "1-0"]  [BlackElo "2683"]  [ECO "E32"]  [EventDate "2017.07.15"]  [WhiteElo "2736"]{ Annotations by John Lee Shaw for www.hotoffthechess.com. } 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Bd2 Nc6 6.Nf3 O-O 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 Qe7 9.e3 a5 10.Be2 e5 11.dxe5 dxe5 12.h3 Rd8 { The most recent outing for this move was a draw between Lupulescu and Bogdanovic in 2016. Before that, one has to go back to 1949, when it proved successful for Black. } 13.O-O { Wojtaszek seems ready, deviating immediately. 13.b3 had been played in the Lupulescu-Bogdanovic game, where as the 1949 example of Benvenuti-Prucha continued with 13.Nd2. } 13...e4 14.Nd4 { The reasoning behind this move is two-fold. First the positional consideration of Nxc6, but also, White wants the option of playing f2-f4-f5 and this idea is very relevant in this game. } 14...Nxd4 { This capture was not obligatory, but probably prudent. Black had to deal with his knight on c6 in some way. ...Ne5 and ...Bd7 were the respectable alternatives, but these were more favourable for White by comparison. } 15.Bxd4 c5 { A large consideration for Black is to try to limit White's bishop pair. To fail in this could see them coming into their own in this type of position. } 16.Bc3 a4 17.f4 Bd7 { Personally, I like ...Bf5, here, when play will most likely focus on the d-file and Black isn't doing too badly. The only issue with that is the Black pawn on a4 which would be a hinderance to any ...Rad1 under the present circumstances. However, ...Bf5 is also a psychological move, not only along the same diagonal as the White Queen, but also, given the fact that White wants to play f4-f5, it is rather provocational. } 18.f5 Bc6 { Black is not doing too badly here and will probably have been quite satisfied. He has nicely activated his light-squared bishop and is contending the d-file. } 19.Rf4 Rd6 20.Raf1 Rad8 { There is nothing wrong with this move exactly, but ...Nd7 was probably a little better, on its way to e5 and d3. Black would also have the possibility of playing ...f7-f6 and would have a perfectly fine position. } 21.Qc1 { This changes the playing field somewhat when it comes to Black moving the knight. White has a lot of prowess along the f-file and under the right situation, his Queen activates very quickly. Unfortunately, this is missed by Nisipeanu. } 21...Nd7 { ? A slip, which opens the game quite drastically for White. A good alternative was ...R8d7, holding things with the idea of ...Qd8 at some stage. } 22.f6 { ! An excellent move, to the point of Black's weakness and White's strength. } 22...Nxf6 { This doesn't work out for Black. In hindsight, sacrificing the exchange with ...Rxf6 may have been better, as shown in the variation. } ( 22...Rxf6 23.Bxf6 Nxf6 24.Qc3 { and White has yet to prove things, here. } ) 23.Qe1 { This was the consideration behind 21.Qc1, the White Queen gets into the action very quickly via this maneuver. White is clearly enjoying the best of things, here and Black has hardly any active options. } 23...Ne8 { Taking the decision to sacrifice the exchange in order to relieve the pressure along the f-file. However, this is at greater cost than the option of a move ago. } ( 23...Re6 24.Qg3 Qc7 { or ...Kf8 Qh4. Though ...Rdd6 may look logical at first glance, it would be a huge blunder and lose to Rxf6, when Black will lose material or get mated via Qb8+. } 25.Qg5 { and the cracks in the Black camp are beginning to show. } ) 24.Rxf7 Qxf7 25.Rxf7 Kxf7 { Black hasn't really achieved very much in giving up his Queen other than getting rid of White's rooks along the f-file. Unfortunately, the compensation for the absence of his Queen, is otherwise non-existant, due to not being able to use his pair of rooks. Or one of them even. Nisipeanu's position is really quite passive. } 26.Qg3 { If only Black had ...Rg6 here, things might not be so bad, but this is not possible due to Bh5 of course. } 26...Nf6 27.Qe5 { Just one way to proceed, Qg5 and Ba5 were also alternatives, but White obviously likes his dark-squared bishop along the a1-h8 diagonal. } 27...Rd2 { A further sacrifice, but a very negative one, showing Black's desperation. Coupled with the threat towards c5, g2-g4-g5 is looming and with White's command of the long diagonal, this would be very serious. } 28.Bxd2 Rxd2 29.Kf1 Rc2 30.Ke1 Rc1+ 31.Kd2 Rg1 32.g4 h6 33.h4 { Again, Black has achieved nothing in return for his material investment, everything is working for White, here. } 33...g5 34.hxg5 hxg5 35.Qxg5 { Qxc5 was also perfectly good. } 35...Bd7 { if ...b6, Qf4 would probably see Black resigning, but as it happens the situation is pretty dismal anyway. } 36.Qxc5 Bxg4 37.Bxg4 Rxg4 38.Qc7+ Ke6 39.Qxb7 { It is very clear that Black has no resistance now. } 39...Rg2+ 40.Kc3 Re2 41.Qc8+ { The Queen will go to c5 and then d4 and White's bits are safe. The Queen will then supervise while the King goes to b4 and claims the a4-pawn. From here, 3 passed pawns will march up the board -- Nisipeanu resigned. A nice controlled game by Wojtaszek. } 1-0

Other Sources• Official Website (in German)