German League Round 9-10: Erwin l'Ami beats Baden-Baden

by Johannes Fischer
2/26/2018 – OSG Baden-Baden has been dominating the German League for more than a decade — in the last eleven years, Baden-Baden won ten times, one time they came second. This season, the star-studded team is again favourite to win — but in round ten they stumbled against Solingen. The match winner for Solingen was ChessBase author Erwin l'Ami. | Photo: Pascal Simon

The Dutch Stonewall - A fighting repertoire against 1.d4 The Dutch Stonewall - A fighting repertoire against 1.d4

In the Dutch Stonewall Black from the very first move fights for the initiative. Let Erwin l'Ami take you on a fascinating journey to the depth and attractions of this unique opening. At the end you will be rewarded with a new repertoire against 1.d4!

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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

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.

The Beasty Botvinnik Variation in the Semi-Slav!

On this DVD you will be taken on a journey through what is arguably the sharpest opening line known to men.

OSG Baden Baden 3½ : 4½ SG Solingen 

1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Pentala Harikrishna 0.5 : 0.5
2 Viswanathan Anand Richard Rapport 0.5 : 0.5
3 Radoslaw Wojtaszek Markus Ragger 0.5 : 0.5
4 Michael Adams Loek Van Wely 0.5 : 0.5
5 Francisco Vallejo Pons Surya Shekhar Ganguly 0.5 : 0.5
6 Etienne Bacrot Robin Van Kampen 0.5 : 0.5
7 Arkadij Naiditsch Erwin L'Ami 0 : 1
8 Sergei Movsesian Borki Predojevic 0.5 : 0.5

Anand

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.

1 Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko Vassily Ivanchuk 1 : 0
2 Dr. Luca Shytaj Jorden van Foreest 0.5 : 0.5
3 Lev Yankelevich Constantin Lupulescu 0 : 1
4 Gabor Kovacs Mircea Emilian Parligras 0 : 1
5 Sarah Hoolt Dr. Florian Handke 0.5 : 0.5
6 Simon Commercon Twan Burg 0 : 1
7 Oliver Prestel Michael Hoffmann 0.5 : 0.5
8 Denis Mager Christian Braun 0 : 1

SF Berlin 5 : 3 SF Deizisau 

1 Martin Kraemer Peter Leko 0.5 : 0.5
2 Dr. Jan Michael Sprenger Georg Meier 0.5 : 0.5
3 Peter Schreiner Michal Krasenkow 0.5 : 0.5
4 Marco Baldauf Andreas Heimann 0.5 : 0.5
5 Dennes Abel Zdenko Kozul 0.5 : 0.5
6 Alexander Seyb Alexander Graf 1 : 0
7 Arnd Lauber Vincent Keymer 1 : 0
8 Lars Thiede Rustem Dautov 0.5 : 0.5

USV Dresden 5½ : 2½ SK Schwäbisch Hall 

1 Zoltan Almasi Dmitry Jakovenko 0.5 : 0.5
2 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu Viktor Laznicka 1 : 0
3 Mateusz Bartel Tigran Gharamian 0.5 : 0.5
4 Elisabeth Paehtz Peter Michalik 0.5 : 0.5
5 Roven Vogel Jean-Pierre Le Roux 1 : 0
6 Maximilian Neef Anthony Wirig 0.5 : 0.5
7 Jens-Uwe Maiwald Frank Zeller 1 : 0
8 Hans Moehn Pavel Zpevak 0.5 : 0.5

Hamburger SK 6 : 2 SV Hofheim

1 Jan-Krzysztof Duda Andrei Volokitin 0.5 : 0.5
2 Kamil Miton Stanislav Savchenko 1 : 0
3 Robert Kempinski Gennadi Ginsburg 1 : 0
4 Sipke Ernst Thore Perske 1 : 0
5 Dmitrij Kollars Davit Lobzhanidze 0.5 : 0.5
6 Lubomir Ftacnik Vladimir Gurevich 1 : 0
7 Thies Heinemann Boris Margolin 0.5 : 0.5
8 Jonathan Carlstedt Arno Zude 0.5 : 0.5

SK Norderstedt ½ : 7½ SV Hockenheim 

1 Michal Olszewski Ruslan Ponomariov 0 : 1
2 Andrey Ostrovskiy Csaba Balogh 0 : 1
3 Michael Kopylov Dennis Wagner 0 : 1
4 Benedict Krause Ivan Saric 0.5 : 0.5
5 Ashot Parvanyan Rainer Buhmann 0 : 1
6 Emil Powierski David Baramidze 0 : 1
7 Falko Meyer Tamas Banusz 0 : 1
8 Viktor Polischuk Arik Braun 0 : 1

FC Bayern München 1 : 7 SV Mülheim Nord 

1 Klaus Bischoff David Navara 0 : 1
2 Linus Johansson Pavel V. Tregubov 0 : 1
3 Michael Fedorovsky Daniel Fridman 0.5 : 0.5
4 Philip Lindgren Konstantin Landa 0 : 1
5 Stefan Schneider Michael Feygin 0 : 1
6 Andreas Schenk Patrick Zelbel 0.5 : 0.5
7 Alexander Belezky Daniel Hausrath 0 : 1
8 Makan Rafiee Nico Zwirs 0 : 1

MSA Zugzwang München 4 : 4 SV Werder Bremen 

A mini-upset as Munich held Bremen to a 4 : 4  tie.

1 Leon Mons Laurent Fressinet 1 : 0
2 Stefan Kindermann Zahar Efimenko 0.5 : 0.5
3 Stefan Bromberger Zbynek Hracek 0 : 1
4 Gerald Hertneck Tomi Nyback 0.5 : 0.5
5 Robert Zysk Wouter Spoelman 1 : 0
6 Christian Schramm Vlastimil Babula 0.5 : 0.5
7 Christoph Eichler Jan Werle 0 : 1
8 Markus Lammers Rolf-Alexander Markgraf 0.5 : 0.5

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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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".