A brilliant game by Vladimir Kramnik, who played the King's Indian (!) against Jan Gustafsson, was the biggest news of the 40th Sparkassen Chess Meeting's first two rounds. The tournament runs July 13-22 in Dortmund, Germany and the Russian is in the lead together with Ruslan Ponomariov, Sergey Karjakin and Georg Meier.

Gustafsson-Kramnik | All photos © Georgios Souleidis, more here

The 40th jubilee edition of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund had a relatively quiet start with four draws and a win by Georg Meier over Mateusz Bartel in Friday's first round. The 24-year-old grandmaster from Trier profited from a few early mistakes by his opponent and also played well in the technical phase.

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Georg Meier vs Mateusz Bartel

In the second round, Ruslan Ponomariov played a strong strategical game and defeated Fabiano Caruana in 26 moves. Bartel also lost his second game. The 27-year-old grandmaster from Poland played inaccurately in the opening and his opponent Sergey Karjakin immediately seized the initiative. (The Russian, who came to Dortmund straight from Astana, had Sergey Shipov take his cup of the Rapid World Championship to Moscow!) The final phase was full of tactics:

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However, the game of the tournament so far is the following. Kramnik only played the KID occasionally in the 90s and is more known for slaying it himself!

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A little brilliancy by Vladimir Kramnik

Games rounds 1-2

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Schedule and results

Dortmund 2012 | Round 2 standings