Baden-Baden wins Bundesliga

by Johannes Fischer
10/20/2021 – Last weekend, Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship, the Bundesliga. Again. In fact, since 2006 the team from Baden-Baden, sponsored by GRENKE Leasing, only failed to win the league in 2016, when Solingen finished first. This year, at the end of a season that due to the pandemic lasted from 2019 to 2021, Baden-Baden was three team points ahead of their closest rivals but securing the title was more difficult than the final result suggests. | Photos: Pascal Simon

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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.

FC Bayern München 4.5 - 3.5 OSG Baden-Baden    
1 2608 Niclas Huschenbeth ½ - ½ Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2691 4
2 2572 Sebastian Bogner ½ - ½ Richard Rapport 2770 5
3 2596 Miguel Santos Ruiz ½ - ½ Michael Adams 2716 6
4 2543 Valentin Dragnev ½ - ½ Etienne Bacrot 2658 9
8 2476 Linus Johansson 0 - 1 Rustam Kasimdzhanov 2661 12
11 2462 Martin Lokander 1 - 0 Sergei Movsesian 2627 13
13 2353 Philip Lindgren ½ - ½ Yannick Gozzoli 2602 15
16 2324 Makan Rafiee 1 - 0 Vadim Milov 2607 16
    SV Hockenheim 3.5 - 4.5 SF Berlin    
8 2668 Ernesto Inarkiev ½ - ½ Kacper Piorun 2655 1
9 2631 Ruslan Ponomariov ½ - ½ Jan-Christian Schröder 2568 2
10 2644 Ivan Saric 0 - 1 Jacek Tomczak 2589 4
11 2589 Arik Braun ½ - ½ Luca Jr Moroni 2575 7
12 2576 Dennis Wagner 0 - 1 Szymon Gumularz 2534 8
14 2601 David Baramidze ½ - ½ Marco Baldauf 2511 9
15 2610 Tamas Banusz ½ - ½ Thore Perske 2445 14
16 2622 Alexander Moiseenko 1 - 0 Emil Schmidek 2385 18

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.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 b6 8.Be3 Bb7 9.f3 Nc6 10.Rc1 Bc5 11.b4 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 Bd6 13.g3 Be5 14.Na4 Bxd4 15.Qxd4 b5 16.Qc5 Rc8 17.cxb5 Qb8 18.Qe3 Rxc1+ 19.Qxc1 axb5 20.Bxb5 0-0 21.Be2 d5 22.exd5 Bxd5 23.Qe3 Bc6 24.Nc3 Qa8 25.b5 Bb7 26.a4 Ng4 27.Qf4 h5 28.0-0 Qa7+ 29.Kh1 Rc8 30.Ne4 e5 31.Qd2 Bxe4 32.fxe4 Nf2+ 33.Kg2 Nxe4 34.Qd5 Nf6 35.Qb3 Qb7+ 36.Bf3 e4 37.Be2 Nd5 38.Bxh5 g6 39.Rd1 Rc2+ 40.Kh3? In this extremely complicated position and with little time on the clock, White misses a hidden tactical shot. After 40.Kh1 Nb4! 41.Qe3 Nd3 42.Be2 the position is still complicated though the engines consider it absolutely equal. White is a pawn up and has two passed pawns on the queenside but Black has active pieces. 40...Rc5? Black misses his chance. 40...Nf4+! 41.gxf4 Or 41.Kg4 gxh5+ 42.Kxf4 Qc7+ 43.Kf5 Qc8+ 44.Kf6 Rf2+ and White's king is too exposed. 41...Qc8+ 42.Bg4 Rc3+ Black is winning. 41.Be2 Qd7+? The engines indicate that Black could have equalized with 41...Qc8+ 42.Kg2 Rc2 but of course Black did not play his rook from c2 to c5 to play it from c5 to c2 one move later. However, after the text-move Black is lost. 42.Kg2 Qe6 43.Rxd5! Now the passed pawns can advance and will decide the game. Rxd5 44.b6 Qe5 45.b7 Rd8 46.a5 Kg7 47.a6 e3 48.Qc4 Rd2 49.a7 Qb2 50.b8Q Rxe2+ 51.Kf3 Rf2+ 52.Ke4 f5+ 53.Kd5 Rd2+ 54.Kc5 Qa3+ 55.Kc6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Rafiee,M2324Milov,V26071–02021B41German Bundesliga 2019-2012.32

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

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.g3 b6 7.Bg2 Bb7 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.Qxc3 a5 10.b3 0-0 11.Bb2 h6 12.Rfe1 Be4 13.Bh3 Bh7 14.Bg2 Ne4 15.Qe3 f5 16.Nd2 Ndf6 17.f3 Nxd2 18.Qxe6+ Kh8 19.Qe3 Nxc4 20.bxc4 d5 21.cxd5 Nxd5 22.Qd2 f4 23.gxf4 Nxf4 24.e3 Nxg2 25.Qxg2 b5 26.d5 Qe7 27.e4 Ra6 28.Kh1 Rg6 29.Qe2 Qh4 30.Rg1 Qh3 31.Raf1 Rf7 32.Rxg6 Bxg6 33.Qg2 Qxg2+ 34.Kxg2 Kg8 35.Be5 Bh5 36.f4 g5 37.Rc1 gxf4 38.Bxc7 Re7 39.e5 Rg7+ 40.Kf2 f3 41.e6 Rg2+ 42.Ke3 Bg4 43.Be5 Re2+ 44.Kf4 f2 45.Bd4 Bh3 46.Rc8+ Kh7 47.Rh8+ Kg6 48.Rg8+ Kh5 49.Bxf2 Rxf2+ 50.Ke5 Re2+ 51.Kd6 Bf5 52.e7 Bg6 53.Kd7 b4 54.d6 a4 55.Rb8 Rxa2 56.Rb5+ Kg4 57.Rxb4+ Kf5 58.Kd8 Rd2 59.d7 a3 60.Rb5+ Kf4 61.Ra5 a2 62.Kc7 Rc2+ 63.Kb8 Rb2+ 64.Ka7 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Lokander,M2462Movsesian,S26271–02021E21German Bundesliga 2019-2012.30

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

  Team Matches MP BP TB3
1. OSG Baden-Baden 14 26 77 346½
2. Schachfreunde Deizisau 14 23 74½ 303
3. SV Hockenheim 14 22 71½ 300
4. SG Solingen 14 19 67 309
5. SC Viernheim 14 16 59 271
6. SK Doppelbauer Turm Kiel 14 15 57½ 258½
7. SF Berlin 14 15 57 245½
8. FC Bayern München 14 15 51½ 237½
9. SV Werder Bremen 14 14 57 251½
10. Hamburger SK 14 14 55 248½
11. SV Mülheim Nord 14 9 50 233
12. BCA Augsburg 14 8 50 217
13. SG Speyer-Schwegenheim 14 7 43½ 214
14. USV TU Dresden 14 6 45 226
15. Aachener SV 14 1 24½ 119
16. SV Lingen*        

*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.

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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