In the first preliminary tournament of this year's Online Open in "No Castling Chess", Jonas Gallasch (photo: Deutsche Schachjugend) emerged as the winner on Saturday with 56 participants on lichess.org.
Chess without castling will be played with the best players in the world in the congress centre of the Dortmund Westfalenhallen from Monday. But every other player also gets the chance to try out this exciting mode. On Saturday, 56 players from all over the world took advantage of the summer temperatures and played a 7-round Swiss System tournament.
Jonas Gallasch from SG Porz was the clear winner with 6.5 points from 7 games. Jonas did not get involved so much in open positions in the opening, but often brought his king to safety early and then convinced with strong chess without mistakes.
But it was also a curious affair right from the start. In the diagram position the two players played a well-known variation of the already sharp two-jumper game, but here without the castling option! That actually helps Black more here:
After 7.cxd4? bxc4 8.Qa4+ Qd7! 9.Qxd7 Bxd7 White was able to take the queens off the board, but the open king quickly avenged itself.
After 10.dxe5 Nxd5! 11.a3 Nf4 the black knight became too strong, moving in on d3, and Black won the game easily.
The top 8 of this first preliminary round qualified for the grand final on 24 July. Among others, the winner of a preliminary tournament from last year, Amir Ali Ghafourian, qualified again for the final as today's fifth.
There, he will compete for an invitation to the 50th International Dortmund Chess Days next year, including an overnight stay in the players' hotel.
In the preliminary rounds, a Chessbase voucher for 30€ goes to the winners.
The next chance is already tomorrow: The second preliminary round will take place on Sunday at 10 am, the third and last preliminary round on Monday at 6 pm. The Sparkassen Chess Trophy Team will play on lichess: NC Sparkassen Online Open
Results preliminary tournament 1:
1. Jonas Gallasch (GER)
2. Vincent Francisco (PHI)
3. Rajarishi Karthi (IND)
4. Alparslan Cenikli (TUR)
5. Amir Ali Ghafourian (IRN)
6. Shahid Ahmed (IND)
7. Alfredo di Cerbo (ITA)
8. FM Janusz Koscielski (GER)