Blohberger and Happala win 1. Austrian Internet Championships

The Austrian Internet Championship 2020

On Sunday, October 4, the Austrian Chess Federation organised the first Austrian Chess Internet Championship, an Open Tournament and a Women's Tournament. Both tournaments were round-robins with twelve players, who had qualified for the final in four preliminaries and one intermediate round. The participants of both tournaments – with the exception of Stefan Kindermann and Elisabeth Happala, who both do not live in Austria and could not travel to the tournament due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic – stayed at the Hotel Zeitgeist during the tournament, but used their private computers to play on the Playchess server.

Favourite in the open tournament was Austria's number one, Markus Ragger. He started with 3½/4, but then lost against Dominik Horvarth in round five. In round nine Ragger suffered another defeat, this time against Stefan Kindermann, and in the end Ragger finished with 5½/11 in the middle of the field. Throughout the tournament he struggled with disconnections, the cause of which could not be determined quickly but which severely affected his games.

The fight for the title developed into a race between Stefan Kindermann and Felix Blohberger who, as luck would have it, met in the fast round to decide the tournament in their direct encounter.

In the penultimate round Stefan Kindermann had taken the lead with a win against Lukas Breneis.

Breneis,Lukas (2262) - Kindermann,Stefan (2471) C00

1.e4 e6 2.Qe2 c5 3.f4 Nc6 4.Nf3 g6 5.c3 Bg7 6.d3 Nge7 7.Be3 b6 8.Nbd2 0–0 9.h4 d5 10.h5 d4 11.cxd4 cxd4 12.Bf2 Nb4 13.Nb3 Ba6 14.Rd1 14.Qd2 is ok.

14...Rc8

15.Ng5? 15.Nfxd4 Nec6 16.e5 Qd5 was better, aber White's king in the center will still give worries.

15...Nc2+ 16.Kd2 Qd6 17.Qg4 Charging ahead. 17...f5 18.Qh4 h6 19.Bg3 19.Nf3 Qb4+ and White's position will soon collapse.

19...hxg5 20.Qxg5 fxe4 21.hxg6 Nf5 22.Qh5 e3+ 23.Kc1 Na3+ 0–1

The direct encounter between Kindermann and his pursuer Blohberger in the last round ended abruptly when Kindermann lost a piece after a mouse slip. He wanted to capture one of Blohberger's pieces, but Kindermann's queen only made it to the square in front of the piece, Kindermann wanted to capture – and this mouse slip decided the championship in favour of Blohberger. Kindermann finished second, Valentin Dragnev became third.

The Open Tournament

Final standings

Games

Women's Tournament

Favourite and top seed in the women's tournament was Anna-Christina Ragger. However, the tournament was smoothly won by Elisabeth Happala, who scored 9½/11, and finished two points ahead of Barbara Teuschler. Helene Mira won bronze.

The Women's Tournament

Final standings

Games

Links

Austrian Chess Federation...