Wang Yue Beats Bluebaum; Wojtaszek Sole Leader

Drawing Dmitry Andreikin as Black, Radoslaw Wojtaszek grabbed the sole lead at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. That's because co-leader Matthias Bluebaum suffered his first loss, against Wang Yue.

After round five Wojtaszek is the sole leader. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Before the final weekend we now have six players on 50 percent (2.5 points), one above them and one below. With two rounds to go it's the Polish grandmaster who has good chances to win Dortmund in his first appearance. Kramnik, however, will probably have to wait at least another year to clinch his 11th title.

2017 Sparkassen Chess Meeting | Round 5 Results

Among the Chinese grandmasters it's 30-year-old Wang Yue who has the most solid playing style. Many will still remember his amazing streak of not losing a game in 85 encounters between March and December 2008.

His game vs Matthias Bluebaum was won in typical style—starting from a small advantage, keeping things safe and slowly increasing that advantage. As our annotator shows, Bluebaum lost the game when he played too passively at the critical moment.

In October 2007, Wang became the first Chinese player to cross 2700. With this win, he crossed it again.

Wang Yue re-ented the list on 2700chess.com. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Although it made sense for Dejan Bojkov to look at the only decisive game, the top clash between Vladimir Kramnik and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave could easily have been named game of the day as well. In this fantastic encounter Kramnik was forced to sacrifice a bishop for two pawns, but MVL gave up a rook right after!

"I thought I was better, but I don't think I spoiled a win," said Vachier-Lagrave.

Vladimir Kramnik is still without a win but theoretically he can still finish in clear first place. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

Without too much fireworks Radoslaw Wojtaszek moved to pole position. His treatment of Dmitry Andreikin's Trompowsky was as solid as a rock. However, he spent too much time in the middlegame, and this led to some inaccuracies in the early endgame. It looks like Andreikin was very close to a win on move 35.

"It's always problematic to play slowly and badly," said Wojtaszek. It's hard to argue with that.

Wojtaszek's play wasn't great, but good enough for sole first. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

It could have been a very good day for the Russian players, but it wasn't meant to be. Vladimir Fedoseev had even more reason to complain, after spoiling a completely winning position vs Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Later in the endgame it happened once again.

"We both felt it must have been won for White, but luckily it was not so easy," said Nisipeanu.

How did Fedoseev not win this game? | Photo: Georgios Souleidis.

2017 Sparkassen Chess Meeting | Round 5 Standings

The 45th Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place July 15-23 in the Orchesterzentrum NRW in Dortmund, Germany. July 17 and 20 are rest days. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes to end the game, with a 30-second increment from move 1.

The pairings for the sixth round, on Saturday, are Bluebaum-Wojtaszek, Nisipeanu-Andreikin, Vachier-Lagrave-Fedoseev, and Wang Yue-Kramnik. You can follow the games each day starting from 15:15 CEST (9:15 a.m. New York, 6:15 Pacific) in Live Chess.

Correction: An earlier verson wrongly stated that Kramnik cannot with the tournament anymore. As fabelhaft mentioned in the comments, Kramnik will be sole first if he beats Wang Yue and Bluebaum and all other games are drawn except Bluebaum-Wojtaszek (1-0).

Previous reports:

• Andreikin Shows Endgame Magic Beyond Move 100
• Black Is OK In Dortmund
• Bluebaum, Wojtaszek New Leaders In Dortmund
• 'Mr Dortmund' Starts With A Loss Again