First Women’s Chess Tournament in Berlin
By André Schulz
A large number of spectators had the privilege to witness the rebirth of an
old tradition. The newspaper Neues Deutschland initiated and sponsored
a chess tournament. In the early days of tournament chess newspapers all over
the world were the first chess players and organisers turned to. Every prestigious
newspaper had a regular chess column. Thus it was only natural to provide the
news to be published by making them happen. Of the all the tournaments in Germany
linked to newspapers, the “Eliteturnier“ in 1928 might well be the most
famous. It took place from 11th to 29th October in the Café König in Berlin,
one of the great chess coffeehouses of that time. The organizer was Jacques
Mieses, who staged the tournament for his newspaper, the famous Berliner
Tageblatt. The prize fund of 10,000 German Marks and Mieses’ organizational
skills attracted a very strong field that made for what we today would call
a supertournament.

The above drawing in the Berlin Tageblatt shows Capablanca, Spielmann, surrounded
by Tartakower, Reti, Marshall, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch. After three rounds
Tarrasch had to withdraw because he was ill, and thus he does not appear in
the final cross table.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Marks
1 Capablanca ** ½½ ½½ ½½ 1½ 11 11 8½ 2000 I
2 Nimzowitsch ½½ ** ½0 ½½ 01 11 1½ 7 1400 II
3 Spielmann ½½ ½1 ** ½0 11 ½0 ½½ 6½ 1000 III
4 Tartakower ½½ ½½ ½1 ** 00 ½0 1½ 5½ 800 IV
5 Rubinstein 0½ 10 00 11 ** 01 0½ 5 600
6 Réti 00 00 ½1 ½1 10 ** ½½ 5 500
7 Marshall 00 0½ ½½ 0½ 1½ ½½ ** 4½ 450
In his Memories of Dr. Emanuel Lasker Salo Flohr reports how
he visited the tournament as chess correspondent for a newspaper from Prague:
"I came to Berlin to the tournament of the Berliner Tageblatt
as an unknown correspondent. My excitement soon to get to know Lasker, Capablanca,
Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch, Rubinstein, Marshall etc. was indescribable. I promptly
went to the Café König, where I immediately recognized all the heroes
I knew from pictures and who were idolized by the young chess player that I
was. But: when morning came I asked myself: where, in fact, am I staying? Because
of the great excitement my chess heart beat so fast that immediately after
arriving I took a hotel room with lightning speed, put down my suitcase and
rushed to the Café König, without caring to look what the name of the hotel
was and in which street it was situated. What now little chess player? I went
to the police to ask for help. They looked a bit bemused. I seemed to be too
young to be deranged. The police in Berlin proved to be up to the task and
found the hotel where I had registered. If they had not found it, this would
not have been such a great catastrophe, because in my little suitcase I probably
had not much more than, as they use to say in Berlin, "an old hat“.
Flohr also explains to us why Dr. Emanuel Lasker did not take part in the
tournament: "I did not see Dr. E. Lasker in the Café König. At that time
he was not much interested in chess, which sometimes happened with him. However,
a few days later I found him after all, in the Café Trumpf, if I remember
correctly. I was patient, waited till two or three in the morning, and together
with a group of his friends and companions we accompanied Lasker home on foot.
These were not chess, but bridge partners."
Later the Berliner Sommer, organized by Alfred Seppelt from 1981 to 1997 was
at least temporarily supported by Berlin newspapers until the tournament was
finally put to rest due to the lack of sponsors.
As far as chess reporting is concerned, with Neues Deutschland and
the TAZ at least two great daily newspapers in Berlin have maintained
the tradition. In both papers there are regular articles or interviews about
chess tournaments or topics related to chess. Now Neues Deutschland went a
step further and organized a small chess tournament.
This idea took hold at the opening of the Lasker exhibition this spring, when
in the rooms of the Lasker Society in the Dorlandhaus among other
things an exhibition game between Matthias Deutschmann, a cabaret artist from
Freiburg and former player in Germany’s first league, and the former Women’s
World Champion Susan Polgar was shown via internet. Olaf Koppe, CEO of Neues
Deutschland, saw how great the interest of the lay public was and asked the
director of the Lasker Society, Stefan Hansen: "Can’t we also do this?"

Stefan Hansen, managing director of Dorland and the Lasker Society

With Raj Tischbierek and his magazine "Schach" a capable co-organizer
was found.
The organizers decided to stage a women’s tournament, with four participants
playing a preliminary and a subsequent knock-out round. "Women also play
very attractive chess, though as far as tournaments are concerned, they always
seem to fare a little worse,” said host Paul Werner Wagner. As the tournament
was to be carried out on a Saturday afternoon, rapid chess was the mode of
play. With the two Germans Elisabeth Pähtz and Melanie Ohme, the Swiss champion
Monika Seps, and the Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist Inna Gaponenko a strong
and interesting field was gathered.

The four ladies: Seps, Gaponenko, Pähtz (standing), Ohme
Elisabeth Pähtz by now has established herself as the clear number one in
German chess. The 21-year-old private in the German army has already two world
junior championship titles under her belt. Currently she is number 25 on the
world ranking list – with an upward trend.

Germany's top female player Elisabeth Pähtz,
with her first trainer, GM Thomas Pähtz (her father)
In the Bundesliga Elisabeth is, together with Almira Skripchenko and Eva Moser,
one of three women who play there in the open (men's) section. In an interview
she recently said that with a bit of luck even the World Championship could
be within her reach. Melanie Ohme from Leipzig just finished sixth at the junior
world championship U-16.

Melanie Ohme, sixth at the World U16 Championship
Together with Maria Schöne, Sarah Hoolt and Judith Fuchs Melanie belongs to
a new generation of young players nominated by the German national coach Uwe
Bönsch for the C-squad. Some of them will certainly take part at the Chess
Olympiad 2008 in Dresden.

Monika Seps from Switzerland
Monika Seps is the best Swiss women player and is also one of the best chess
players of the country. The 21-year old already represented Switzerland at
European Championships and at the Chess Olympiad, and has made considerable
progress during the last two years. "The weak will try to beat the strong,
in rapid chess everything is possible,” she explained her goal for the tournament.
Apart from that she just wanted to play challenging chess.

IM (and WGM) Inna Gaponenko of Ukraine
Because the other players were hardly older than 20, the Ukrainian Inna Gaponenko,
who plays for the Ukrainian national team, was the oldest participant, although
she is just 30. Inna is chess professional, plays in several leagues, and also
has to take care of her weven-year-old daughter. In her home country she ranks
as number 80 on the overall ranking list. In the women’s ranking list she is
number three behind Lahno and Zhukova.
About a hundred spectators found their way to the Leuschnerdamm, where the
Lasker Society resides in the Dorlandhaus. This should easily exceed the average
number of spectators at the World Championships in San Luis or Elista. It is
obviously good to stage chess tournaments in big cities, when you are interested
in attracting spectators. They can come by public transportation and don’t
have to wait for the charter flights or hotels. Just imagine what would happen
if a candidates match or something similar would take place here.

With the help of DGT boards the games were projected on a screen hanging on
the wall above the players. The games were also transmitted to an adjoining
room where they were commentated by GM Thomas Pähtz. ChessBase provided a world-wide
live broadcast, with video and audio streams, on the Playchess server.
The spectators, who included a number of chess celebrities from Berlin, saw
four young ladies with friendly smiles on their faces, even though at the same
time on the chessboard they were going for each other's throats. A lot of blood
was shed: only two of the ten games were drawn, and even they only ended after
a long fight.

Monika Seps about to take battle against Elisabeth Pähtz
After the preliminary the two "strong" players, Gaponenko and Pähtz,
led the table, while the other two had to fight for third and fourth. Melanie
Ohme was a bit unlucky when she failed to hold a drawn rook endgame against
the experienced Elisabeth Pähtz. Here the results of the preliminary:
In the final between Gaponenko and Pähtz the latter at first had the better
chances, but spoiled a won endgame to a draw. In the second game Gaponenko
overstepped the time in an unclear position and thus Elisabeth Pähtz won the
tournament.

Elisabeth Pähtz vs Inna Gaponenko in the final
In the small final Ohme and Seps both won a game and agreed to share third
place.


Apart from flowers the players received travel vouchers donated by the
GIS-Reisen travel company
Pictures by André Schulz and Dagobert Kohlmeyer
Translation by Johannes Fischer
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