As Mayor of the City of Dortmund, Norbert Schilff opened this year’s Schachtage International Women’s Tournament on the second day of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy, with Dinara Wagner making the opening move 1.d4.
Schilff highlighted the importance of the international tournament, particularly for Dortmund as a sporting hub. The game then followed the Grünfeld Defence.
Klauda Kulon said after the game:
“I set myself the goal for this tournament of becoming much more solid. I’m actually a very aggressive player, and I want to improve on that. I managed that very well today.”
The top Polish player equalised and, following a sequence of moves, managed to exchange several pieces, so that the game ended in a draw without any notable incidents.
Meanwhile, Natalija Buksa (photo) opted for 1.e4 and an aggressive variation against Song Yuxin’s Sicilian. The Chinese international surprised her opponent with the early queen move 9…Qa5. However, the plan backfired. With all her pieces on the board, Song found herself in a very passive position. Buksa seized the opportunity, castled long, launched an attack with all her pieces and secured a fine victory. The leader after the first round will have the white pieces again tomorrow, when she faces Klaudia Kulon.
In the A-Open, a grandmaster showdown took place on board one right from the start: tournament favourite Matthias Blübaum faced another regular from Dortmund – Romuald Mainka, who lives in the region, challenged him with the black pieces. However, Blübaum showed greater determination right from the opening, and by the middlegame Mainka was left with a weak pawn on d4 and a significant time disadvantage on the clock. The national team player thus captured the pawn and won the game.
On board two, GM Rasmus Svane gradually gained the upper hand against Nikash Vemparala (USA) and went on to win the game. On board four, Dortmund’s International Master Dr Christian Scholz was thoroughly outplayed by GM Elham Amar (Norway). A strong start with two wins for open specialist Amar. Other favourites for the tournament title, including GM Andrew Hong (USA) and GM Kacper Piorun (Poland), also secured their second point.
Meanwhile, in the B-Open, 34 players are still in contention with a perfect 2 out of 2. Among them are top seed Tim Geweniger and David Belka (photo). Belka won the prize for the chessemy ‘Game of the Day’ in the first round of the B-Open. This special prize is awarded daily by chessemy – The Big Greek Academy, with a prize fund of €75 per open tournament.
Play continues on Monday at 10.30 am with the third round of the B-Open, and from 3 pm with the A-Open and the International Women’s Tournament. The pairings are as follows:
Song Yuxin v Dinara Wagner
Natalia Buksa v Klaudia Kulon