At the anniversary tournament, the organisers of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Trophy celebrated a record number of participants in the Open with almost 550 players, including several German national players. Vladimir Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana, runner-up at the 2018 World Championship, provided the glamour of world champions at the NC Masters. | Photo: Veterans of the Dortmund Chess Festival | Photos: Michelle Lassak
20 years ago, on 4 October 2002, a very special duel began in Manama, in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played against a PC chess programme - Deep Fritz. Dagobert Kohlmeyer followed the match in Bahrain and shares memories of this remarkable event.
After Vladimir Kramnik had to pull out at short notice due to health reasons, the official opening move of the No-Castling World Masters of the 49th International Dortmund Chess Days took place on the board of Michael Adams and Daniel Fridman. Adams beat Fridman to grab the early lead. | Photos: Michelle Lassak
Midsummer is traditionally the time of the Dortmund Chess Days. After last year's relaunch, the festival will be expanded this year with, among other things, a large international open. At the weekend, the pairings have been drawn, which also means that the schedule is fixed. It all starts on 17 July. | Photos: Dortmunder Schachtage
After the successful first edition last year, the No-Castling World Masters Tournament will be expanded in Dortmund in July 2022, as former world champions Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand will be joined by Krishnan Sasikiran and local hero Daniel Fridman. Concurrently, the Deutschland Grand Prix, the NRW Youth Cup and two opens will take place at the massive festival set to kick off four months from now.