Erwin for the win
With an average Elo of 2766 on the first eight boards, the OSG Baden-Baden is nominally superior to all other teams, and even when some of the best players cannot play, Baden-Baden is still amazingly strong. But, after winning the first seven matches without too many troubles, the favourites stumbled in round 8 and only managed to draw against the team from Hamburg — a team that is fighting against relegation.
However, in round 9 Baden-Baden won again — though only narrowly:
DJK Aachen 3½ : 4½ OSG Baden-Baden
1 |
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
½ |
: |
½ |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
3 |
4 |
van Foreest, Jorden |
½ |
: |
½ |
Anand, Viswanathan |
4 |
5 |
Lupulescu, Constantin |
0 |
: |
1 |
Wojtaszek, Radoslaw |
6 |
6 |
Parligras, Mircea Emilian |
½ |
: |
½ |
Adams, Michael |
7 |
7 |
Bindrich, Falko |
½ |
: |
½ |
Vallejo Pons, Francisco |
8 |
9 |
Handke, Florian, Dr. |
½ |
: |
½ |
Bacrot, Etienne |
9 |
11 |
Zaragatski, Ilja |
0 |
: |
1 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij |
10 |
17 |
Donchenko, Alexander |
1 |
: |
0 |
Movsesian, Sergei |
11 |

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Vassily Ivanchuk | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
The biggest rival of Baden-Baden is the team from Solingen. After nine rounds these two teams led the table, in round 10 they met for their direct encounter. Baden-Baden was the favourite to win this crucial match but Solingen seemed to be in better shape: round 9 brought them a clear 7½ : ½ win.
SG Solingen 7½ : ½ SG Speyer-Schwegenheim
2 |
Harikrishna, Pentala |
½ |
: |
½ |
Oleksiyenko, Mykhaylo |
1 |
3 |
Rapport, Richard |
1 |
: |
0 |
Shytaj, Luca, Dr. |
7 |
4 |
Ragger, Markus |
1 |
: |
0 |
Yankelevich, Lev |
8 |
5 |
Van Wely, Loek |
1 |
: |
0 |
Kovacs, Gabor |
10 |
6 |
Ganguly, Surya Shekhar |
1 |
: |
0 |
Hoolt, Sarah |
11 |
7 |
Van Kampen, Robin |
1 |
: |
0 |
Commercon, Simon |
13 |
10 |
L'Ami, Erwin |
1 |
: |
0 |
Prestel, Oliver |
16 |
11 |
Predojevic, Borki |
1 |
: |
0 |
Mager, Denis |
17 |
The other matches in round 9 did not bring great surprises — the favourites won more or less clearly and two of the weaker ones, which played against each other, drew.
SV Mülheim Nord 6 : 2 MSA Zugzwang
1 |
Navara, David |
½ |
: |
½ |
Mons, Leon |
1 |
2 |
Tregubov, Pavel V. |
½ |
: |
½ |
Kindermann, Stefan |
2 |
3 |
Fridman, Daniel |
½ |
: |
½ |
Bromberger, Stefan |
3 |
4 |
Landa, Konstantin |
1 |
: |
0 |
Hertneck, Gerald |
4 |
7 |
Feygin, Michael |
1 |
: |
0 |
Zysk, Robert |
5 |
8 |
Zelbel, Patrick |
1 |
: |
0 |
Schramm, Christian |
7 |
9 |
Hausrath, Daniel |
1 |
: |
0 |
Eichler, Christoph |
9 |
14 |
Zwirs, Nico |
½ |
: |
½ |
Lammers, Markus |
10 |
SV Werder Bremen 4½ : 3½ Bayern München
In the German soccer league, a win of Werder Bremen against Bavaria Munich would be a surprise. In chess, it isn't.
3 |
Fressinet, Laurent |
½ |
: |
½ |
Bischoff, Klaus |
3 |
5 |
Efimenko, Zahar |
½ |
: |
½ |
Johansson, Linus |
5 |
7 |
Hracek, Zbynek |
1 |
: |
0 |
Fedorovsky, Michael |
6 |
8 |
Nyback, Tomi |
1 |
: |
0 |
Lindgren, Philip |
7 |
9 |
Spoelman, Wouter |
0 |
: |
1 |
Schneider, Stefan |
8 |
10 |
Babula, Vlastimil |
1 |
: |
0 |
Schenk, Andreas |
10 |
11 |
Werle, Jan |
0 |
: |
1 |
Belezky, Alexander |
12 |
12 |
Markgraf, Rolf-Alexander |
½ |
: |
½ |
Rafiee, Makan |
15 |
SF Deizisau 5½ : 2½ USV Dresden
Deizisau is the newcomer in this year's season, but they have an experienced and strong team and did not have too much trouble against Dresden.
2 |
Leko, Peter |
½ |
: |
½ |
Almasi, Zoltan |
2 |
4 |
Meier, Georg |
½ |
: |
½ |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter |
3 |
5 |
Krasenkow, Michal |
1 |
: |
0 |
Bartel, Mateusz |
5 |
8 |
Heimann, Andreas |
½ |
: |
½ |
Paehtz, Elisabeth |
8 |
9 |
Kozul, Zdenko |
1 |
: |
0 |
Vogel, Roven |
9 |
10 |
Graf, Alexander |
0 |
: |
1 |
Neef, Maximilian |
10 |
11 |
Keymer, Vincent |
1 |
: |
0 |
Maiwald, Jens-Uwe |
11 |
12 |
Dautov, Rustem |
1 |
: |
0 |
Moehn, Hans |
13 |
SK Schwäbisch Hall 6 : 2 Schachfreunde Berlin
4 |
Jakovenko, Dmitry |
1 |
: |
0 |
Kraemer, Martin |
6 |
6 |
Laznicka, Viktor |
1 |
: |
0 |
Sprenger, Jan Michael, Dr. |
9 |
7 |
Gharamian, Tigran |
½ |
: |
½ |
Schreiner, Peter |
10 |
10 |
Michalik, Peter |
1 |
: |
0 |
Baldauf, Marco |
11 |
11 |
Le Roux, Jean-Pierre |
½ |
: |
½ |
Abel, Dennes |
12 |
12 |
Wirig, Anthony |
1 |
: |
0 |
Seyb, Alexander |
13 |
15 |
Zeller, Frank |
½ |
: |
½ |
Lauber, Arnd |
15 |
16 |
Zpevak, Pavel |
½ |
: |
½ |
Thiede, Lars |
16 |
SV Hockenheim 4½ : 3½ Hamburger SK
4 |
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
½ |
: |
½ |
Duda, Jan-Krzysztof |
1 |
8 |
Balogh, Csaba |
½ |
: |
½ |
Miton, Kamil |
5 |
9 |
Wagner, Dennis |
0 |
: |
1 |
Kempinski, Robert |
6 |
10 |
Saric, Ivan |
1 |
: |
0 |
Ernst, Sipke |
8 |
11 |
Buhmann, Rainer |
½ |
: |
½ |
Kollars, Dmitrij |
9 |
12 |
Baramidze, David |
1 |
: |
0 |
Ftacnik, Lubomir |
11 |
13 |
Banusz, Tamas |
½ |
: |
½ |
Heinemann, Thies |
12 |
14 |
Braun, Arik |
½ |
: |
½ |
Carlstedt, Jonathan |
14 |
SV Hofheim 4 : 4 SK Norderstedt
1 |
Volokitin, Andrei |
½ |
: |
½ |
Olszewski, Michal |
1 |
3 |
Savchenko, Stanislav |
½ |
: |
½ |
Ostrovskiy, Andrey |
3 |
5 |
Ginsburg, Gennadi |
0 |
: |
1 |
Kopylov, Michael |
4 |
6 |
Perske, Thore |
½ |
: |
½ |
Krause, Benedict |
5 |
7 |
Lobzhanidze, Davit |
½ |
: |
½ |
Parvanyan, Ashot |
6 |
8 |
Gurevich, Vladimir |
½ |
: |
½ |
Powierski, Emil |
8 |
9 |
Margolin, Boris |
1 |
: |
0 |
Meyer, Falko |
9 |
11 |
Zude, Arno |
½ |
: |
½ |
Polischuk, Viktor |
10 |
Games of round nine
Round 10
Round 10 promised more excitement. After all, the two leading teams, Solingen and Baden-Baden faced each other.
Baden-Baden brought a strong team, though Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian were missing — presumably because both are currently deep in preparation for the upcoming Candidates tournament. Peter Svidler was also missing — which gave rise to speculation that he might be helping to train one of the candidates. But with an Elo-average of 2726 to 2665, Baden-Baden was still the favourite in this crucial match.
Yet things did not go well. After a few games had ended relatively quickly with a draw, Baden-Baden found itself in trouble. None of their players could claim a clear advantage but Arkadij Naiditsch was on the ropes against Erwin L'Ami.
Here, things are still okay for Black: his position is passive but solid. In the later course of the game, L'Ami managed to get his queenside moving and to bring a piece to c6.
White's strategy turned out to be superior. Naiditsch failed to find an adequate defence and L'Ami's position got better and better. In the end, Erwin L'Ami was the match winner: seven games of the match were drawn, while he won against Naiditsch.

Match winner Erwin L'Ami
Erwin L'Ami is not only an excellent player, but also an opening expert and second of Anish Giri. He shared his opening knowledge, on a couple of ChessBase DVDs.
OSG Baden Baden 3½ : 4½ SG Solingen

Anand played two games this weekend, but only scored one point (both draws) | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
After this win, Solingen now is clear first. However, the season is not over yet. There are still five rounds to play and in these five rounds, Solingen will face a couple of strong teams.
Other results
Speyer Schwegenheim 2½ : 5½ DJK Aachen
Vassily Ivanchuk was in action for Aachen, and even lost, but his team nevertheless won easily.
SF Berlin 5 : 3 SF Deizisau
USV Dresden 5½ : 2½ SK Schwäbisch Hall
Hamburger SK 6 : 2 SV Hofheim
SK Norderstedt ½ : 7½ SV Hockenheim
FC Bayern München 1 : 7 SV Mülheim Nord
MSA Zugzwang München 4 : 4 SV Werder Bremen
A mini-upset as Munich held Bremen to a 4 : 4 tie.
Ganes of round ten
Standings after ten rounds
Rg. |
Team |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
Wtg1 |
Wtg2 |
1 |
Solingen |
* |
4½ |
4 |
|
|
|
|
6½ |
4½ |
6½ |
|
7½ |
5½ |
4½ |
6½ |
7 |
19 |
57,0 |
2 |
Baden |
3½ |
* |
|
|
5½ |
4½ |
5½ |
5 |
6½ |
|
|
|
4 |
6½ |
6½ |
7 |
17 |
54,5 |
3 |
Bremen |
4 |
|
* |
3½ |
4½ |
6½ |
5 |
|
|
|
6 |
|
6 |
4½ |
4 |
7½ |
16 |
51,5 |
4 |
Hockenheim |
|
|
4½ |
* |
3½ |
|
5 |
3½ |
6 |
6½ |
|
|
4½ |
3½ |
6 |
7½ |
14 |
50,5 |
5 |
Deizisau |
|
2½ |
3½ |
4½ |
* |
|
|
5½ |
3 |
5 |
7 |
6½ |
|
5 |
3½ |
|
12 |
46,0 |
6 |
Aachen |
|
3½ |
1½ |
|
|
* |
|
4 |
4½ |
5 |
|
5½ |
3½ |
6 |
4 |
7½ |
12 |
45,0 |
|
Schwaebisch Hall |
|
2½ |
3 |
3 |
|
|
* |
2½ |
6 |
5½ |
4½ |
6½ |
|
6 |
5½ |
|
12 |
45,0 |
8 |
Dresden |
1½ |
3 |
|
4½ |
2½ |
4 |
5½ |
* |
|
|
4 |
4½ |
4 |
|
|
5½ |
11 |
39,0 |
9 |
Berlin |
3½ |
1½ |
|
2 |
5 |
3½ |
2 |
|
* |
|
5½ |
6 |
4½ |
|
|
5 |
10 |
38,5 |
10 |
Muelheim |
1½ |
|
|
1½ |
3 |
3 |
2½ |
|
|
* |
3½ |
|
4½ |
7 |
6 |
5½ |
8 |
38,0 |
11 |
Hofheim |
|
|
2 |
|
1 |
|
3½ |
4 |
2½ |
4½ |
* |
|
2 |
4 |
5½ |
4 |
7 |
33,0 |
12 |
Speyer |
½ |
|
|
|
1½ |
2½ |
1½ |
3½ |
2 |
|
|
* |
4½ |
4 |
6 |
5 |
7 |
31,0 |
13 |
Hamburg |
2½ |
4 |
2 |
3½ |
|
4½ |
|
4 |
3½ |
3½ |
6 |
3½ |
* |
|
|
|
6 |
37,0 |
14 |
Muenchen |
3½ |
1½ |
3½ |
4½ |
3 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
1 |
4 |
4 |
|
* |
|
|
4 |
29,0 |
15 |
Zugzwang |
1½ |
1½ |
4 |
2 |
4½ |
4 |
2½ |
|
|
2 |
2½ |
2 |
|
|
* |
|
4 |
26,5 |
16 |
Norderstedt |
1 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
|
½ |
|
2½ |
3 |
2½ |
4 |
3 |
|
|
|
* |
1 |
18,5 |
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