Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic

Category 19 GM tournament: February 7th–17th 2013

For the first time ever the Baden-Baden Chess Centre (Schachzentrum Baden-Baden) is hosting a Category 19 GM tournament. This event continues the tradition of great chess tournaments that the well-known southern German spa town has established over the last two centuries. The first great event in this town was played in 1870 (July 18 – August 4). It was a double round robin, with nine players, and won by the great Adolf Anderssen.

As Adolivio Capece pointed out, in this tournament for the first time in history draws were counted and valued at half a point. In previous matches and tournaments they were not considered and drawn games were replayed.

The participants in the 2013 tournament are:

The venue is the historical halls of Kulturhaus LA8 (House of Culture) in the center of Baden-Baden. Here's a promotional video of the famous spa city.

Round one

There was one decisive result: Fabiano Caruana defeated German GM Georg Maier, while the other two games were drawn, in 48 and 43 moves.

The start of the only decisive game in round one

The hero of the round was the Italian/American prodigy Fabiano Caruana. He started 2013 with a disastrous tournament in Wijk aan Zee, no doubt a shock to the system after a phenomenally successful 2012. In Baden-Baden he bounced straight back, winning a fine game against Georg Meier. Fabiano blitzed out his first 19 moves, featuring two pawn sacs to keep Meier’s king in the centre, while his German opponent was soon struggling over the board.

Chess players have a reputation for iron logic, but in their press conference after a dazzling game both World Champion Viswanathan Anand and England’s no. 1 Michael Adams revealed that logic only takes you so far. When commentator IM Lawrence Trent started by asking the players how they were Adams replied, “Good… confused by the game”. The confusion started on move 16 (see commentary in our JavaScript game replay above)

World Champion Viswanathan Anand drew his first game against Michael Adams

The playing hall in the Kulturhaus LA8 (House of Culture)

To complement the main event, several side tournaments – each limited to 80 players – will take place:

• Chess Classic Elo Open (9 rounds, 9 days, only for players ELO 1800+) 7th–15th Feb 2013
• Chess Classic Fasching (6 rounds, 3 days, open to all) 9th–11th Feb 2013
• Chess Classic Ferien (6 rounds, 3 days, open to all) 14th–16th Feb 2013

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.