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Viswanathan Anand wins No Castling World Masters against Vladimir Kramnik

Pavel Eljanov wins the Grandmaster tournament Deutschland Grand Prix

After Viswanathan Anand had a chance to win the match in the third game, he secured the title in the World Masters match at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy with a win in the fourth round. Again Anand came out of the opening phase comfortably, but Vladimir Kramnik played creatively and sparked a kingside attack.

Vladimir Kramnik draws extremely contested game

Dmitrij Kollars with the best chances of winning the Deutschland Grand Prix

On move 40 Viswanathan Anand had the chance to win the match in the No Castling World Masters of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy: Instead of 40.Sf4? both players see some possibilities to win the game directly, as they explain in the analysis video:

Mateusz Bartel is the winner of the day

Pavel Eljanov with entertaining queen sacrifice against Ponomariov

While the match between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand had a rest day, the round robin tournaments of the 48th International Dortmund Chess Days were running on Friday. In the Deutschland Grand Prix, the Polish grandmaster Mateusz Bartel had a difficult time so far, but now he could land a nice attacking win with Black against Andreas Heimann. Heimann's king was pinned in the centre from the Catalan opening and Bartel won quickly.

Vladimir Kramnik with a draw against Viswanathan Anand

Eljanov leads the Deutschland Grand Prix ahead of strong German players

The two living legends have been playing the first NC World Masters since yesterday with classical thinking time in the innovative mode of chess without castling. After the defeat in the opening round, Kramnik led with White on Thursday and opened with 1.c4 just like Anand the day before. On move six Anand played with 6…e5 an idea he had encountered in his match preparation. Kramnik reacted with an early queen exchange and tried everything to extend his small optical advantage in the middlegame.