Dortmund 1981
The ninth Dortmunder Schachtage produced no outright champion: the Soviet grandmaster Gennady Kuzmin, England's Jonathan Speelman and Czechoslovakia's Ľubomír Ftáčnik all finished on 8/11, with Kuzmin recorded at the head of the tie in the series' roll of winners.
◈A June festival
The ninth Internationale Dortmunder Schachtage ran from 2 to 14 June 1981 in the exhibition hall of Dortmund's Westfalenpark. As in previous years the grandmaster tournament — a Category 8 round-robin of twelve invited players — headed a wider festival, with a twelve-player reserve group and an open of roughly sixty participants played alongside it; the open was won by the American Vincent McCambridge on 7½.
The invited field put the Soviet grandmaster Gennady Kuzmin, at 2545 its highest-rated player, against Jonathan Speelman, Ľubomír Ftáčnik, Yugoslavia's Bojan Kurajica and Romania's Mihai Șubă, with Italy's Stefano Tatai, the young West German Stefan Kindermann, Poland's Aleksander Sznapik, Argentina's Daniel Cámpora and the Dutch veteran Kick Langeweg among the rest.
◈Three at the top
The race ended in a three-way dead heat on 8/11. Kuzmin and Speelman both went through the event unbeaten with five wins and six draws, while Ftáčnik took a rougher road — six wins against a single loss. Kurajica, also unbeaten, finished half a point back on 7½, with Șubă next on 6½.
The series' lists of winners record Kuzmin as the 1981 champion at the head of the tie. For Dortmund it was another step in the tournament's growth from the 1973 founding toward the elite invitational it would become; for Speelman and Ftáčnik, both early in their grandmaster careers, a shared first at a festival of this profile was a marker of things to come.
◈Final Standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =1 | Ftacnik, Lubomir | 8/11 | +6 -1 =4 | games → |
| =1 | Kuzmin, Gennadi P | 8/11 | +5 -0 =6 | games → |
| =1 | Speelman, Jonathan S | 8/11 | +5 -0 =6 | games → |
| 4 | Kurajica, Bojan | 7½/11 | +4 -0 =7 | games → |
| 5 | Suba, Mihai | 6½/11 | +4 -2 =5 | games → |
| 6 | Campora, Daniel Hugo | 5/11 | +3 -4 =4 | games → |
| 7 | Sznapik, Aleksander | 5/11 | +2 -3 =6 | games → |
| 8 | Tatai, Stefano | 5/11 | +1 -2 =8 | games → |
| 9 | Kindermann, Stefan | 4½/11 | +3 -5 =3 | games → |
| 10 | Borik, Otto | 3½/11 | +3 -7 =1 | games → |
| 11 | Langeweg, Kick | 3/11 | +0 -5 =6 | games → |
| 12 | Paulsen, Dirk | 2/11 | +1 -8 =2 | games → |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ftacnik, Lubomir | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 2 | Kuzmin, Gennadi P | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Speelman, Jonathan S | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Kurajica, Bojan | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 5 | Suba, Mihai | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 6 | Campora, Daniel Hugo | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 7 | Sznapik, Aleksander | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | |
| 8 | Tatai, Stefano | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | |
| 9 | Kindermann, Stefan | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | |
| 10 | Borik, Otto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 11 | Langeweg, Kick | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | |
| 12 | Paulsen, Dirk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Each cell shows the row player's per-game results against the column player (in round order). ● = same player.