Ruslan Ponomariov safely drew Le Quang Liem in the final round to clinch first place at the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting. Ponomariov scored 6.5/10, finishing a full point ahead of Le Quang Liem, who finished in second. Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov shared third at an even five points, while Peter Leko and Arkadij Naiditsch shared last with 4/10.

As big as the win was for Ponomariov -- it was his biggest tournament triumph since his FIDE World Championship win back in 2002 -- the player benefiting most from this year's Dortmund event might be Le Quang Liem. The previously relatively-unknown Vietnamese grandmaster impressed with wins over Ponomariov and Leko, and could earn himself more invitations to premier events off the back of this result. The former Under 14 World Champion is currently the highest-rated player in Vietnam.

Ruslan Ponomariov drew his sixth round game against Peter Leko, taking him to a score of 4/6 at the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, good for first in the six player field. Ponomariov is a half-point ahead of Le Quang Liem, who despite being the lowest-rated player in the field, stands alone in second and won his head-to-head game with Ponomariov.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has had a tough last two rounds. After round four, the Azerbaijani grandmaster was sitting pretty with a 3/4 score. However, he lost a key game against Ponomariov in the fifth round, and then hung a piece before resigning in his sixth round game against Arkadij Naiditsch. Mamedyarov now shares 3rd place with Vladimir Kramnik with three points. Naiditsch is fifth with 2.5, while Peter Leko rounds out the field at 2 points.

A quick note from here in the United States before I go: congratulations to Irina Krush for winning the US Women's Championship with a great 8/9 score! Congrats also to Sam Shankland, who won the US Junior Chess Championship after winning a three-way playoff over Ray Robson and Parker Zhao.

The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting might not have the same level of talent this year as in most recent editions, but there should still be plenty of exciting chess coming out of the six-player field. Vladimir Kramnik is the highest-rated player in the tournament, though the rest of the field is also quite strong; Shakhiryar Mamedyarov, Peter Leko, Ruslan Ponomariov, Arkadij Naiditsch and Le Quang Liem round out the group.

So far, Ponomariov has made the most of his opportunities in the first two rounds, jumping out to the lead with a 2/2 score. Impressively, his two victories have come over Leko and Kramnik! The two former World Championship rivals currently share last place at 0.5/2, along with local boy Naiditsch.

The tournament is a double round-robin, which means there's still a long way to go before a winner is crowned in Germany. We'll have more coverage of the action over the next week!

I've been out of touch with the chess world this week -- I had to have some dental work done, which made it hard to focus on much else -- so here are a couple notes from the past few days that you might have missed!

Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic took first place at the World Open, starting with six straight wins and then drawing his final three games to finish at 7.5/9. This allowed Laznicka to actually finish clear first by a half-point, a rare occurrence in these large open Swiss tournaments. Pentala Harikrishna, Ilya Smirin and Luke McShane tied for second place at 7 points. Laznicka took home a very healthy paycheck of $17,413, while the second place finishers each won just over $5,000 for their efforts. Full results from the Open section, as well as every other section, can be found on the World Open website.

And here's something you don't see every day: chess players suiting up for a fashion shoot! Dutch clothing company G-Star is utilizing Magnus Carlsen along with Liv Tyler in their newest campaign for their G-Star RAW line of clothing. Chess players may not be into fashion as a whole, but there is some chess related news here as well. G-Star also announced the RAW World Chess Challenge, taking place on September 10th in New York City. From the Cooper Square Hotel, Carlsen will take on the entire world in a chess game over the Internet! Participants will be given up to three moves to vote for, suggested by Hikaru Nakamura, Judit Polgar and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Maurice Ashley will provide live commentary on the game. For more information on the game (or Carlsen's new fashion career), check out this report at ChessBase.