Cuban Dominguez beats Ponomariov in Dortmund Chess Tournament

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 13 (acn) After two consecutive draws, Cuban Leinier Dominguez defeated Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov in the third round and now appears as one of the leaders of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, in Germany.

Leinier (2713 Elo points) beat the 2012 world champion (2706) in 75 moves of a Sicilian defense, Najdorf variation.
The Caribbean moved white pieces and achieved greater mobility to act on the weaknesses of his opponent and it was also so much helpful having a bishop against knight and a more active rook, which ultimately was the key to success, the second reached in classical games versus Ponomariov.
Leinier now has two units and integrates a vanguard that also includes French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2798), who drew with the local Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2674) in 56 moves of a Grunfeld defense.
Yesterday´s other win went to American Fabiano Caruana (2810), who beat Russian Evgeny Najer (2687) in 46 moves of a Caro Kann defense.
Meanwhile, Russian Vladimir Kramnik (2812) and German Rainer Buhmann (2653) also signed peace in 47 moves of French defense.
Now, Ponomariov, Kramnik, Caruana and Nisipeanu, all with 1.5 points, appear as escorts of Leinier and Vachier, while Buhmann and Najer close the standings with only one unit.
Today Leinier will have a very tough match with black pieces against Caruana, number three in the world rankings, while Vachier will face Buhmann, Kramnik will clash with Ponomariov and Nisipeanu will do it versus Najer.