Dresden: Anniversary, chess summit, exhibition, programme, AI
This summer, Dresden is definitely Germany's chess capital. From 16 to 26 July, the German Chess Federation will hold its Chess Summit in the city on the Elbe. And the Dresden Chess Club of 1876 is celebrating its 150th anniversary.
The idea of a German Chess Summit, at which the whole German chess community comes together and competes in championships across various disciplines and at different levels, goes back to former DSB president Ullrich Krause. The Chess Summit recalls the major DSB congresses that, after the German Chess Federation was founded in 1877, were regularly held at various venues.
Because of the Chess Federation's temporarily difficult financial situation, however, the Chess Summit could no longer be realised. Ullrich Krause's successor as DSB president, Ingrid Lauterbach, then restored the federation's finances to a sound footing and set about reviving the Chess Summit.
Now the major chess festival is taking place again. The city of Dresden has been known as a splendid host for major chess events since well before it staged the 2008 Chess Olympiad.
With Wolfgang Uhlmann (1935-2020), Dresden and the Dresden Chess Club had, and still have, an outstanding figurehead for chess. Uhlmann was the best chess player in the German Democratic Republic, with eleven national championship titles, belonged to the absolute world elite at his peak in the 1960s and 1970s, and competed for the World Championship in Interzonal tournaments and Candidates matches.
Staircase of the Dresden City Museum with a view of the gallery, where
the special exhibition can be seen.
Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.
View of the exhibition
Detail of the exhibition: trophy and winner's photo with Vsily Smyslov after sharing
first place in Havana in 1964
On the occasion of the Chess Summit and the anniversary, the Förderverein Schach Wolfgang Uhlmann has organised an exhibition in honour of Wolfgang Uhlmann, curated by Dresden artist Michael Merkel. In the gallery of the City Museum on Pirnaischer Platz, the exhibition documents Wolfgang Uhlmann's meteoric rise. At two media stations, visitors can get to know Wolfgang Uhlmann better through a series of videos, films and interviews.
A special feature is an installation of the chess programme Fritz 20, which simulates Wolfgang Uhlmann's opening repertoire and playing style when one plays against the programme. To this end, ChessBase used AI to evaluate all of the grandmaster's surviving games specifically for this exhibition. It is as if one were playing against Wolfgang Uhlmann himself.
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Media station with Fritz 20, offering the possibility of playing a game against Wolfgang Uhlmann
Report on the opening on MDR...
The exhibition was opened on 30 April in the presence of Kai Schulze, managing director at Dresden City Hall. Guests from the partner cities of Hamburg and Wroclaw had the opportunity to get to know each other better in a small chess tournament.
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
Bent Larsen (1935–2010) was the greatest chess player in Danish history, and for a time, the second-strongest player in the Western world behind Bobby Fischer. Between 1954 and 1971, he won the Danish Championship six times, and achieved numerous international tournament victories throughout his career.
Free video sample: Introduction to Bent Larsen by Peter Heine Nielsen
Free video sample: Introduction to the Opening Section
Gengchun Wong of USV TU Dresden plays a clock simul in one of the side events for the exhibition: 7½-½, with Angelos Anagnostoudis of SV Dresden-Leuben scoring a draw
The exhibition can still be visited until 2 August. The side programme includes six events, among them a lecture by Antje Göhler on 5 July. Under the title "Salziger Wein – Antje Göhler reads and presents selected chess games", the Germanist with a doctorate and former GDR women’s chess champion of 1988 - then still Antje Riedel - will masterfully link literature and chess.
Side programme...
Festive hall at Dresden City Hall
On 16 July, the chess city of Dresden invites the guests of the German Senior Championship to a welcoming afternoon in the festive hall of Dresden City Hall. A double anniversary will be celebrated. Alongside the 150th anniversary of the Dresden Chess Club, Dresden will also commemorate the beginning of the chess congresses, which goes back 100 years.
Programme
Organiser: Förderverein Schach Wolfgang Uhlmann e.V.
Total time: 15:30 to 18:30.
I. Exhibition games in the plenary hall
- Fritz 20 presents: chess world champion Emanuel Lasker (AI Fritz 20) vs chess legend Wolfgang Uhlmann (AI Fritz 20)
- 2024 senior world champion Rainer Knaak vs 2015 youth world champion Roven Vogel
- Start with speeches at 15:30. Duration: 60 minutes.
II. Simultaneous exhibition in the festive hall against five Bundesliga players on eight boards each = 40 participants in the DSEM
- Organiser: Förderverein Schach Wolfgang Uhlmann e.V.
- Start at 16:30. Duration: 120 minutes.
III. Club championship of the Förderverein Schach Wolfgang Uhlmann e.V. in the festive hall with 32 club members
- Organiser: Förderverein Schach Wolfgang Uhlmann e.V.
- Start at 16:30. Duration: 120 minutes.
IV. Chess Fanatics tournament in the festive hall with 32 non-club players
- Organiser: Chess Fanatics
- Start at 16:30. Duration: 120 minutes.
DSB: The Chess Summit in Dresden...
DSB: The chess festival at the Chess Summit...
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