Grenke Bank wins World Corporate Championship

A 75% female lineup

Fundamentals of Chess Openings

Starting out in chess is difficult, and this DVD aims to reduce that stress. Designed for beginner levels in openings, a brief introduction to the reasons we play some of the most common moves in popular openings like the Spanish and Sicilian is given.

If we take a look at the rules of the 1st World Corporate Championship, it is mentioned that each team must include at least one female player and at least one male player. In most open chess competitions, the organizers do not even bother to include the second part of that sentence, as it is unlikely to see a team that presents more women than men in its roster.

The winners of the championship, however, had three women and the minimum of one male representative in their lineup, as Georg Meier was the only man playing for Grenke Bank in the tournament. Unlike most other teams, the highest-rated player in the German squad was not an invited player, given the fact that Meier works as a risk controller in the bank. Alina Kashlinskaya was, in fact, the invited participant, and was joined by Hanna Marie Klek (deputy team leader of operational banking) and Inna Agrest (project manager) on bottom boards.

Grenke Bank’s chess team

The knockout

How to play the Sicilian Defence!

The continuous stream of new ideas in the Sicilian makes 1..c5 the most popular answer to 1.e4. On this DVD I do give an introduction to the most important Sicilian systems.

Each match in the knockout stage consisted of four rapid games (10 minutes plus 2-second increments), which in case of a tie were followed by a blitz face-off (3'+2") and an Armageddon decider if necessary.

One of the four confrontations in the quarterfinals was decided in blitz, with PT Pelabuhan Tanjung Priok beating Morgan Stanley in the tiebreaker. Grenke, SBER and Sberbank Trade Union made it into the semifinals as well — the latter two teams, both Russian, had Nepomniachtchi and Anton Korobov on top boards, and were paired against each other.

No tiebreaks were seen in the semis. SBER convincingly defeated Sberbank Trade Union 3½:½ with wins by Nepomniachtchi, Maxim Lavrov and Maria Komagina, while Grenke drew three games and saw Hanna Marie Klek getting the crucial win to move on to the final.

In the final match of the championship, Nepomniachtchi defeated Meier with black on the top board, but Klek once again was the hero for Grenke as she beat Lavrov to tie the score. In the following blitz decider, Klek in fact lost, but her female colleagues, Kashlinskaya and Agreest, won their games to give the German squad overall victory.

Grenke Bank* 2 : 2 SBER

*Won the tiebreaker 2½ : 1½

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

About Grenke

From FIDE’s press release

Founded in 1978 in Baden-Baden, Grenke is not only successful in chess, but also in three different business areas: leasing, banking, and factoring. The bank operates now in 32 countries, with 1,700 employees worldwide.

There are many reasons to celebrate this victory: the first one is that @Grenke_AG has been a loyal supporter of chess, and every year since 2013 they have sponsored the Grenke Chess Classic, an elite tournament held in the German cities of Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden. In parallel with the Classic, Grenk also organizes the largest chess open in Europe, with approximately 2,000 participants. Unfortunately, both events had to be cancelled in 2020, for obvious reasons. But we can't wait to have them back!

The victory of the German company is also a nice tribute to Wolfgang Grenke, who recently celebrated his 70th birthday. In 2014, Mr. Grenke established the GRENKE Foundation for the promotion of sport, art, architecture, and cultural heritage management.

Donations welcome

We would like to encourage all participant companies, their employees, and chess fans in general, to support FIDE social projects Chess in Education, Chess for People with Disabilities and Chess for Vetarans Support Program. You can make a donation using this link. 

All available games - Knockout

Links

• Official site
• Full lists of teams at Chess-Results