King's Gambit, back rank mates, missed chances and a surprising leader. What a seventh round in the A-Open of the 51st International Dortmund Chess Days!
It was only quiet in the game between IM Georgios Goumas and GM Frederik Svane on the second board. ‘I would have liked to get a real game, but my opponent knew his way around,’ said Svane after the game. Goumas quickly went for a draw with White and got it in under an hour.
The first board, on the other hand, was a hard-fought affair. Top favourite GM Anton Korobov and IM Nico Zwirs both had their chances, but in the end it was a draw here too. On the fourth board, IM Konstantin Peyrer looked set to win for a long time. However, he lost the advantage in time trouble, the queens were exchanged and he only had the repetition of moves to draw against GM David Gavrilescu.
As the last game of the top group, IM Vadim Petrovskiy tried to utilise his extra pawn against GM Christopher Wojin Yoo. After the time trouble, he managed the pawn breakthrough b4, together with c4-c5 and won his game. Afterwards he was puzzled by his opponent's opening.
‘After 8...0-0 9.g4! it's well known that I'm already better.’
Petrovskiy now leads the field ahead of the final weekend with the last two rounds before the participating grandmasters. He is also in contention for his second grandmaster standard in Dortmund, for which he now has every chance.
There were also some extremely wild games in the chasing pack. On the sixth board, GM Quesada Perez started the game very aggressively with the King's Gambit. The result was an exciting distribution of material. At times, FM Nadav Zemach had a big advantage, but the game ultimately ended in perpetual check.
The game: lichess
Things got curious on board 11, where FM Enis Zuferi tricked the experienced GM Rafael Vaganian and was suddenly completely winning after the time trouble.
But then he made an incredible mistake with 47.Qxe4 (diagram) and Vaganian was able to mate two moves later with 47...Qxf1!
With two rounds to play, the battle for the tournament title is wide open and will continue on Saturday at 3pm!