Baden-Baden wins Bundesliga

Bundesliga 2019/21

Usually, the matches in the Bundesliga are played on weekends, but this year, the clubs agreed to play the last seven rounds of the season in a central location, at the Hotel proArte, right in the centre of Berlin.

After the first eight rounds two clubs shared the lead Baden-Baden and Hockenheim. Both teams had won all their previous matches and everything seemed to be set for an exciting head to head race – Hockenheim and Baden-Baden would meet in round 13. Both teams also won in rounds 9, 10, and 11 but in round 12 things went wrong for the favourites.

Though Baden-Baden had a rating-advantage on all eight boards, the team lost 3.5-4.5 against Bavaria Munich and Hockenheim lost 3.5-4.5 against the SF Berlin, a team that was also much lower-rated.

A crucial game in the Baden-Baden vs Munich match was the game between Rakan Mafiee Vadim Milov on board 8, in which the outsider managed to hold his own though Milov missed a golden opportunity in the last move before the time-control.

In the Hockenheim vs Berlin match, Swedish IM Martin Lokander scored an important win against Sergey Movsesian.

But Baden-Baden recovered from this setback and in round 13 defeated the team of Deizisau, which after Baden-Baden's loss against Munich was only one match point behind Baden-Baden. Match-winner was Vishy Anand: seven games of this crucial match ended in a draw but the former World Champion found a way to crack his opponent's defenses and secured his team a very important 4.5-3.5 win.

After a long a complicated maneuvring game the following position was on the board. Black now played 47...Re8? which allowed White to break through. After 47...Qh5! Black should be able to hold.

48.Re2! Re5 49.Kg4 Ke7 50.Rxe5+ fxe5 51.h5 Now White's queen comes to h4 and Black cannot stop the white pawns. 51...f3 52.Qe3 Qh6 53.f6+! Black resigned. After 53...Kxf6 54.Qxf3+ Ke7 55.Qf7+ Kd8 56.Kf5 the white king enters Black's position with devastating effect. 1–0

Vishy Anand | Photo: Pascal Simon

In an interview after the game Anand talked about his win and about the upcoming World Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

In the duel between Hockenheim and Baden-Baden in round 14 Baden-Baden again won 4.5-3.5. This time, Etienne Bacrot was the match-winner. He defeated Rainer Buhmann who blundered in a difficult endgame.

White is two pawns up but it is difficult to see how he can make progress. White's rook is tied to the defense of the knight, and when the knight moves, Black takes on b2. But Black wanted to force matters and played 46...Bb5??, a mistake that cost him the game. White replied 47.Rb7!, pinning the bishop and forcing White to liquidate into a drawn rook ending: 47...Rxa4 48.Rxb5 Rc4 49.Rf5 Rb4 50.Rf2 Kg6 51.Rc2 Kf5 52.Kf2 Rb3 53.Ke2 Ke4 54.Kd2 Kd4 55.Kc1 Rg3 56.Kb1 Rg6 57.b3 Rg3 58.Kb2 Kd5 59.Ka3

The other seven games of the match ended in a draw.

In the fifteenth and final round Baden-Baden clearly defeated Speyer-Schwegenheim and secured the title. Deizisau won against Hockenheim to become second.

Final standings

*Lingen withdrew its team at the start of the season

Baden-Baden took clear first and the last four teams (Speyer-Schwegenheim, Dresden, Aachen and Lingen) are relegated and next season they will play in the 2. Bundesliga. Theoretically.

However, things are not that simple. Playing in the Bundesliga might offer talents and amateurs the chance to play against some of the world's best players but each season is also very expensive. After all, an amateur team has practically no chance to hold its own in the league unless it pays a number of strong grandmasters to join the team. But even that might not be enough.

Teams with a strong sponsor - such as Baden-Baden, which is supported by GRENKE Leasing - can afford to buy top players and they can invite as many non-German strong players to their team as they want as the Bundesliga does not limit the number of foreign players in a team.

In fact, the line-up of the top ten boards of Baden-Baden (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Richard Rapport, Michael Adams, Francisco Vallejo-Pons, Arkadij Naiditsch, Etienne Bacrot, and Hou Yifan) reads like a who-is-who of international chess but none of them plays for Germany.

Paying international top players and covering costs for accomodation and travel is expensive and teams often realize that the costs for playing in the Bundesliga are simply too high for them and withdraw their teams before, during or most often after the season. This season, Lingen withdrew at the start, while Hockenheim and Speyer-Schwegenheim declared during or at the end of the season that they will not play next season.

Moreover, teams that are theoretically qualified to play in the Bundesliga after coming first in the 2. Bundesliga, often waive their right to play in the first league.

Therefore, Aachen and Dresden will stay in the league and will be to play next season. If they want to and if they are willing to cover the costs.

All games