International Internet match in Dresden

July 18 – 26, 2002

The traditional Dresden Open has been renamed. This year the players will participate in the "ZMD Open", the name coming from the successful microelectronic specialist ZMD, whose head office is in Dresden and who have shown a lot of commitment for chess in Saxony (see multimedia report in CBM 83 Extra). The immediate result for the players: there will be an unprecedented prize fund of over € 26,000 (€ 4000 for the winner) at the ZMD Open.

Even if you cannot make it to this event you can participate in a small way. At the opening ceremony there will be a special Internet match featuring four young German girls, each the winner of her age category, and opponents from different continents.

The German women's champions are:

Tina Mietzner (above), the women's under 18 champion, is the strongest of the four: Elo 2105.

The three younger participants: Evgenia Smirina, women's under 14 champion, Elo 1903; Elena Winkelmann, under 12, Elo 1575, and Maria Schöne, under 16, Elo 2062.

All four have a fair bit of experience in chess. In the above picture they are playing in a simul against a visiting Grandmaster from Baku.

Tina also took part in the simul and played a tremendous game which included a queen sacrifice and a drawn endgame with opposite bishops. Unfortunately she committed an error in the endgame and the merciless male opponent (did we mention: from Baku?) took the full point.

Invitation to play

The Internet match will begin on Wednesday, July 17, 2002, at 18.30 MEZ (= 16:30 GMT, 17:30 London, 12:30 NY) and will last until 21.00 MEZ.

The venue is the beautiful Schloss Albrechtsberg in Dresden.

If you visit the Playchess server and enter the Audio/Video room you will be able to watch the action. And if there is time you may be able to play an informal blitz game against the girls. Stand by to accept their challenges.