Chess night in Hamburg

A Playchess night in Hamburg

They all turned up in the afternoon, a squad taken from the very successful German National team (which won the silver medal in the last Olympiad). Accompanied by the national trainer GM Uwe Bönsch and the entire Presidential board of the German Chess Federation, the players had come to Hamburg for two reasons: to learn some of the finer points of the software provided by their sponsors ChessBase, and to play an Internet spectacular against a team of users on the Playchess Server.

The "Fritz Team" had gone through a series of qualification tournaments. Sixteen were nominated by virtue of their results, four were standing by in case someone had connection problems. There were none, everything went extremely smoothly. The atmosphere was great, with everyone clearly enjoying the experience.

The rate of play was seven minutes per side per game. This was chosen in order to give both sides equal chances. The players who had qualified were all power users with a great deal of experience playing on the Fritz server; for them faster time controls would be advantageous. The German national team was obviously much stronger but individual players had less experience with optical mice and the "dropping" technique used in fast games. So they preferred a slower rate of play.

In the end the professionals scored a resounding victory of 24:6. Afterwards, with midnight coming, there were a lot of informal games, the most interesting being between Germany's most experienced player Robert Hübner and Vishy Anand, who generally looks in during such events. Hübner, who was somewhat sceptical about this form of chess, as able to hold the world's number three to a draw.

Gerald Hertneck and Klaus Bishof during the game. Onlookers standing around are GM Rainer Knaak, Dr. Heinz Meyer (vice president of the German Chess Federation), Siegfried Wölk, Chess Federation president Alfred Schlya, Federation CEO Horst Metzing, IM Oliver Reeh

Round 1

Setting things up for Dr Robert Hübner and Uwe Bönsch

Round 2

A picture of determination: WGM Elisabeth Paehtz during a game

Round 3

Matthias Wüllenweber of ChessBase helps GM Klaus Bischoff

Round 4

Germany's most experienced player Dr Robert Hübner

Round 5

Gerald Hertneck wrapping up a game

Round 6

Everyone enjoys a good game on the Internet

Final standings

German Chess Federation Vice President Dr. Heinz Meyer and Presiden
Alfred Schlya play a few games (and win them all!)

Gerry Hertneck watches Elli Pähtz win a game

Dr Robert Hübner plays informally against Vishy Anand, who is in Madrid.