Convergent Total Synthesis of (+)‐Ophiobolin A

At long last: The enantioselective total synthesis of the title compound, which was isolated in 1958, proceeds by a convergent approach. The assembly of the C, D-ring fragment and the A-ring fragment of the core structure is achieved by employing a Reformatsky-type reaction. The eight-membered carbocyclic B ring is efficiently constructed by a challenging ring-closing metathesis (see scheme).