Kramnik Wins Dortmund Chess Tournament for Eighth Time

World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik has won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess meeting for the 8th time, finishing a full point ahead of his nearest competition. Kramnik drew his final game with Evgeny Alekseev to finish with five points in seven rounds, one point ahead of Alekseev, Peter Leko and Viswanathan Anand.

According to Wikipedia, this is Kramnik's second consecutive victory in Dortmund. Last year, he shared first with Peter Svidler.

Full standings and a final crosstable are available at ChessBase.com.

Kramnik won the tournament by winning three games, while losing none. He scored draws against his stiffest competitors, such as Leko and Anand, while scoring wins against the players at the bottom of the standings: Magnus Carlsen, Boris Gelfand, and Arkadij Naiditsch.

According to ChessBase, Kramnik employed the Petroff Defence in his final game with Alekseev. Kramnik has used this opening with black to great effect throughout his career, including in his 2000 world championship victory over Garry Kasparov.

Kramnik's victory was made more impressive due to a severe illness he contracted days before the tournament began. According to ChessBase, Kramnik has a respiratory infection and high fever, which caused him to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the week prior to the event. Kramnik has previously missed events due to a rheumatic disease.

Alekseev's second place finish was also impressive. Although he came into the tournament rated 7th among the eight competitors, he finished the tournament without a loss, and managed a win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who finished 5th.

However, there were also disappointing performances for some of the field.

Magnus Carlsen, the 16-year-old grandmaster from Norway who has already competed in the Candidates Matches for the World Championship, finished the tournament without a win in sixth place. Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand finished seventh, dropping two games without a win.

Local favorite Arkadij Naiditsch, the only German in the field, previously won the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in 2005. This year, however, he finished dead last, with losses to Kramnik, Anand and Mamedyarov.

The Sparkassen Chess Meeting is held each year in Dortmund, and is traditionally one of the strongest chess tournaments of the year. The format has changed over time, with both round-robin and match play events having been held. This year's event was a single round-robin contested between eight leading grandmasters. This was the 16th Chess Meeting; Kramnik has won or shared first place eight times, while Anand has the next most titles with three.

Sources:

"Dortmund R7: all games drawn, Kramnik wins for the eighth time." ChessBase. URL: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3968
"Breaking news: will Kramnik miss Dortmund?" ChessBase. URL: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3939
"Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting." Wikipedia. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dortmund_Sparkassen_Chess_Meeting