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The German Internet Championship 2020 is played on the ChessBase server and started with four preliminary rounds – the qualifier so to speak – and one intermediate round (the "semifinal"). The final was scheduled to be played "live" on May 9 in Magdeburg but will probably be delayed.
The preliminaries were open to all members of the German Chess Federation. 10% of the players in the preliminaries qualified for the intermediate round and each player was allowed to play in more than one prelimary if he or she so desired. Grandmasters, International Masters (men and women) and players with a German national rating (the so-called "DWZ") were also set for the intermediate tournament. The time-limit for all tournaments is 3+2.
The first preliminary was played on March 7, the last on March 23. The intermediate round followed on March 28.
All four tournaments attracted a number of International Masters and Grandmasters though these players did not need to qualify for the intermediate. Probably they simply enjoy online blitz or maybe they were lured by the prizes.
The four preliminaries were won by Roven Vogel, Georg Meier, Dmitrij Kollars and Matthias Blübaum.
Roven Vogel, U16 Junior World Champion 2015 and winner of the Qualifiers in Wijk aan Zee 2020 | Photo: Website Wijk Aan Zee
Blitz is fast but Georg Meier still found time to stream his games live on his Twitch.tv account where he impressed viewers with his amazing calm. | Photo: Grenke Chess
Dimitrij Kollars | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
Matthias Blübaum, currently number two in Germany. | Photo: Anastasia Kharlovich
The intermediate round was won by IM Ilja Schneider who shared first place with GM Daniel Friedman, GM Georg Meier and GM Matthias Blübaum. They all finished with 10/13 but Schneider won on tie-break.
Ilja Schneider | Photo: Frank Hoppe
Schneider is not a grandmaster but he has narrowly missed the title a couple of times and was one of the favourites to win the intermediate round. After all, he is a strong blitz player and in 2015 and 2018 he won the German Blitz Championships.
Behind the four players who shared first place six players followed with 9.5 points each. They had to play a tie-break for the remaining four qualification slots for the final. In the end Daniel Hausrath, Christian Braun, Rasmus Svane and Nikolas Lubbe made it to the finals.
The final was supposed to take place on May 9 at the Maritim Hotel in Magdeburg. The idea was to invite all players who qualified for the finals to Magdeburg to let them online but live, supervised by an arbiter. However, in view of the ongoing corona pandemic it is likely that the event in Magdeburg will be cancelled.
The Maritim Hotel in Magdeburg, Germany
