No changes on the stage: the two top seeds Bernhard Zoremba and Dario Adam both win their fourth round in the B-Open. Also at the top is a familiar figure from last year and a 10-year-old super talent.
Zoremba (photo) played a superior game in the Sicilian opening with Black. His opponent Christian Weber built up too cautiously from the start, so that the initiative was always with Zoremba, who consistently utilised his advantage.
Link to the game: Weber - Zoremba
On the second board, it was anything but clear for a long time who would emerge victorious. The Australian Zachary Garden had an advantage at times, but then exchanged queens when it wasn't necessary. The resulting endgame was even with the best play, but Adam played it skilfully and won the game.
Tied on 4 points from 4 games is Oleksandr Kasapchuk from the Dortmund club SF Brackel, who played for a long time last year to win the tournament in the B-Open. Today he won convincingly against Vito Gierhardt and has every chance of winning the B-Open title this year. Also at 4/4 is Harshill Pradeep (cover photo) from SK Bickenbach, born in 2014! This comes as no surprise to insiders; the 10-year-old is one of Germany's biggest talents and has an ambitious goal:
‘I want to be a chess grandmaster by the age of 18,’ he told the Hessenschau.
In Dortmund, he is well on the way to raising his Elo rating and playing a successful event. The fifth player with full points is Andreas Leidig from SV Heiden, who beat his opponent today with a surprise weapon against Philidor.