Vachier-Lagrave Leads Dortmund With (You Guessed It) Two Rounds Remaining (Updated)
And not only that, but he has moved into #2 in the world on the live rating list. This is mainly due to his fine play in Dortmund, but he has received a sort of assist from Vladimir Kramnik, who has drawn all his games so far. Kramnik had very good winning chances against Fabiano Caruana in today's round - round 5 - while in round 3 Kramnik failed to convert a significant but not decisive advantage in what would have been a brilliant win over Rainer Buhmann. Even if he had won both games he'd still be half a point behind MVL, but he would have maintained his lead in the ratings.
Vachier-Lagrave has 4/5; most closely pursued by Leinier Dominguez and Ruslan Ponomariov, both of whom have 3 points. As they are his opponents in the last two rounds, first place is still very much up for grabs.
Meanwhile, let's have a look at that remarkable Kramnik-Buhmann game.
UPDATE: It shouldn't have gone without saying that Buhmann's play in that game, while not quite perfect, was still extraordinarily good. Both he and Kramnik deserve major kudos for their play, and while Kramnik's play was flashier he at least had a headstart from his home prep. Buhmann had to try to work everything out at the board, and then to play more than a dozen moves at the end of the first time control with only a minute or two left on the clock.
Reader Comments (1)
Thank you for your analysis that really helped me understand this wonderful game better!