It was a long Sunday in Dortmund. Of the four Round 2 games three finished in draws and all crossed the first time control. The only winner was Ruslan Ponomariov, who beat Evgeniy Najer with White. The Russian had won his first game, so returned to 50%, while the Ukrainian caught Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in first place on +1. The three draws all had a story of their own and left high expectations for what will follow after the first rest day.

Ponomariov may have been away from elite tournaments for a while, but he was clinically precise when required! | image: Andrés Wadalupe

Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting Round 2

Replay the day's action with Jan Gustafsson, who couldn't have been happier to give up his Sunday afternoon to meet the popular demand for live commentary 

1. MVL is in time to watch Euro 2016

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave started the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting against the most fearsome opponents: Fabiano Caruana and Vladimir Kramnik. Now the Frenchman has passed that test with flying colours, though, his 1.5/2 makes him the early tournament favourite.

In his game on Sunday you might have assumed that both he and his opponent would have a real motivation to sign a quick draw: the Euro 2016 final between France and Portugal (Kramnik lived in Paris for many years and is married to a French journalist). However, neither player backed down from a struggle.

World no. 2 vs. (live) world no. 3 | photo: official website

The former World Champion remained loyal to his Berlin Defence with the black pieces, while Maxime also remained loyal to the mission he revealed during Norway Chess:

It’s an evil opening! I’m like the only good guy who’s fighting it right now.

A theoretical battle ensued, with neither playing spending more than three minutes on a move before they'd reached move 23. They rapidly reached an ending with a rook, knight and four pawns on either side.  White had a minimal advantage due to the activity of his king, but it was insufficient to overcome Kramnik's defences. The draw was sealed on move 51.

2. Domínguez escapes

Leinier Domínguez is well-known for being one of the best prepared players on the circuit, but in his second round game he soon ended up much worse against Germany's Rainer Buhmann. In a King's Indian where pawns were exchanged on e5, Leinier took a decision on move 10 that Jan Gustafsson described as "a schoolboy error":

The Cuban has just played 10...Be6?, to which Buhmann replied with the known refutation 11.Nd5!. After 11...Nxe4 12.Nxc7, Domínguez decided to give up the exchange rather than end up with a bad pawn structure after allowing the white knight to take on e6. In the play that followed Black aimed to compensate for being down an exchange with the activity of his bishop pair, though White maintained a nagging edge.

Domínguez was lucky to escape unscathed against Buhmann | photo: official website

Buhmann gave it his all, but Leiner was nothing if not tenacious and held on until his suffering was finally over on move 77.  

3. Ponomariov reminds us that not all rook endings are drawn

Ruslan Ponomariov didn't burn any bridges in the opening and instead went for a long-term advantage based on his bishop pair. Evgeniy Najer, for his part, accepted the proposal to exchange pieces pretty quickly. On move 22 there were only pawns and four rooks on the board. White was the first to become active and reached an ending with two pawns vs. one on the same flank. Najer was probably counting on defending that setup without any trouble, and he was well on his way to doing just that until move 37:

Many rook moves would maintain the equilibrium, but the Russian chose 37...Kf6. The problem is that after the check with 38.e5+, the king has no good response. Najer chose to put his king on e6, which allowed Ruslan to capture on g7 with his rook, while the black king picked up White's e-pawn:

The white king and rook protect the passed pawn, and with his king out of place Black was forced to concede defeat. Not all rook endings are drawn!

4. Nisipeanu knows how to play against the elite

The Romanian and now German player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is always welcome in tournaments due to his creative style of play and his human qualities. In the second round he had the black pieces against the defending champion Fabiano Caruana. Nisipeanu played the Caro-Kann and commented after the game:

I trust this opening - it's my main approach against strong players. Of course Caruana's position was very pleasant and he put me under some pressure, but somehow I was always able to maintain the balance on the board.

Caruana did indeed do all he could to unbalance the position, but he was unable to avoid a transition into a completely drawn ending. Hands were shaken on move 43.

Caruana came up with nothing against Nisipeanu's Caro-Kann | photo: official website

So after two rounds the standings look as follows:

Unusually even for a supertournament, Monday was already a rest day. By comparison, the players in Danzhou need to play six rounds before they get a break! 

The tournament resumes on Tuesday and, given it's a sprint of only seven rounds, each game could prove decisive. MVL has Black against Nisipeanu, while Ponomariov has the same colour against Domínguez. Kramnik and Caruana will attempt to join the hunt when they face the underdogs Buhmann and Najer. Don't miss all the action here on chess24!

You can also watch the games in our free mobile apps:  

         

See also:

• Official website
• All the Dortmund 2016 games with computer analysis
• Super-GM summer: Danzhou, Dortmund, Bilbao