Kramnik Wins Dortmund Chess Tournament for Eighth Time

World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik has won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess meeting for the 8th time, finishing a full point ahead of his nearest competition. Kramnik drew his final game with Evgeny Alekseev to finish with five points in seven rounds, one point ahead of Alekseev, Peter Leko and Viswanathan Anand.

According to Wikipedia, this is Kramnik's second consecutive victory in Dortmund. Last year, he shared first with Peter Svidler.

Full standings and a final crosstable are available at ChessBase.com.

Kramnik won the tournament by winning three games, while losing none. He scored draws against his stiffest competitors, such as Leko and Anand, while scoring wins against the players at the bottom of the standings: Magnus Carlsen, Boris Gelfand, and Arkadij Naiditsch.

According to ChessBase, Kramnik employed the Petroff Defence in his final game with Alekseev. Kramnik has used this opening with black to great effect throughout his career, including in his 2000 world championship victory over Garry Kasparov.

Kramnik's victory was made more impressive due to a severe illness he contracted days before the tournament began. According to ChessBase, Kramnik has a respiratory infection and high fever, which caused him to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the week prior to the event. Kramnik has previously missed events due to a rheumatic disease.

Alekseev's second place finish was also impressive. Although he came into the tournament rated 7th among the eight competitors, he finished the tournament without a loss, and managed a win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who finished 5th.

However, there were also disappointing performances for some of the field.

Magnus Carlsen, the 16-year-old grandmaster from Norway who has already competed in the Candidates Matches for the World Championship, finished the tournament without a win in sixth place. Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand finished seventh, dropping two games without a win.