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On April 10th and 11th the last two rounds of the German Team Championship (Schachbundesliga) season 2009/10 will take place. The venues Baden-Baden and Bremen are the most likely places where the winners of the championship will be decided. In Bremen Werder Bremen faces SG Solingen, and in Baden-Baden it is OSG Baden-Baden vs SV Mülheim Nord. These are the four best teams of the league so anything can happen.
Rnk |
Team | Rds |
+ |
= |
– |
TP |
BP |
| 1 | OSG Baden-Baden | 13 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
24 |
76 |
| 2 | SG Solingen | 13 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
24 |
66 |
| 3 | Werder Bremen | 13 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
23 |
67.5 |
| 4 | SV Mülheim Nord | 13 |
8 |
4 |
1 |
20 |
63.5 |
| 5 | SV Wattenscheid 1930 | 13 |
7 |
2 |
4 |
16 |
55.5 |
| 6 | Hamburger SK | 13 |
7 |
1 |
5 |
15 |
57 |
| 7 | SC 1950 Remagen | 13 |
7 |
1 |
5 |
15 |
56.5 |
| 8 | SC Eppingen | 13 |
6 |
2 |
5 |
14 |
55.5 |
| 9 | SK Turm Emsdetten | 13 |
6 |
0 |
7 |
12 |
53.5 |
| 10 | SG Trier | 13 |
6 |
0 |
7 |
12 |
50.5 |
| 11 | SF Katernberg | 13 |
6 |
0 |
7 |
12 |
45.5 |
| 12 | SF Berlin 1903 | 13 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
7 |
46.5 |
| 13 | FC Bayern München | 13 |
1 |
3 |
9 |
5 |
41 |
| 14 | Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim | 13 |
0 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
35 |
| 15 | SK König Tegel | 13 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
2 |
32.5 |
| 16 | Erfurter SK | 13 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
2 |
30 |
If two teams have the same number of team points at the end of the season there will be a tiebreak at the end of April. The board points are not relevant as second criteria for the title. Here the lineups in Baden-Baden.
14th round: Saturday, 10th of April 2010, 2 p.m.
| OSG Baden-Baden | SV Mülheim Nord | ||||
| 1 | Alexei Shirov | 2730 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2718 | |
| 2 | Etienne Bacrot | 2709 | Pavel Tregubov | 2649 | |
| 3 | Michael Adams | 2682 | Daniel Fridman | 2661 | |
| 4 | Arkadij Naiditsch | 2685 | Vitali Golod | 2602 | |
| 5 | Francisco Vallejo Pons | 2696 | Alexander Berelowitsch | 2551 | |
| 6 | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu | 2664 | Felix Levin | 2481 | |
| 7 | Jan Gustafsson | 2622 | Daniel Hausrath | 2528 | |
| 8 | Rustem Dautov | 2596 | Gerhard Schebler | 2486 |
15th round: Sunday, 11th of April 2010, 10 a.m.
| SF Katernberg | OSG Baden-Baden | ||||
| 1 | Vladimir Chuchelov | 2598 | Alexei Shirov | 2730 | |
| 2 | Christian Seel | 2493 | Etienne Bacrot | 2709 | |
| 3 | Klaus Bischoff | 2561 | Michael Adams | 2682 | |
| 4 | Ilja Zaragatski | 2475 | Arkadij Naiditsch | 2685 | |
| 5 | Sebastian Siebrecht | 2456 | Francisco Vallejo Pons | 2696 | |
| 6 | Christian Scholz | 2373 | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu | 2664 | |
| 7 | Sarah Hoolt | 2225 | Jan Gustafsson | 2622 | |
| 8 | Jens Kotainy | 2243 | Rustem Dautov | 2596 |
On March 21 we visited the city of Emsdetten, where the 13th round of the Bundesliga was being played. We drew in the atmosphere of a weekend team championship and saw some exciting action in the process. Here are the matches we followed:
B OSG Baden-Baden vs SV Wattenscheid
| 1 | GM | Shirov, Alexei | 2730 | – |
GM | Najer, Evgeniy | 2681 | 1:0 |
| 2 | GM | Bacrot, Etienne | 2709 | – |
GM | Bartel, Mateusz | 2609 | 1:0 |
| 3 | GM | Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2685 | – |
GM | Czarnota, Pawel | 2537 | 1:0 |
| 4 | GM | Vallejo, Francisco | 2696 | – |
GM | Johannessen, Leif | 2532 | 1:0 |
| 5 | GM | Nielsen, Peter-Heine | 2687 | – |
GM | Appel, Ralf | 2551 | ½:½ |
| 6 | GM | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | 2664 | – |
GM | Handke, Florian | 2513 | ½:½ |
| 7 | GM | Gustafsson, Jan | 2622 | – |
IM | Souleidis, Georgios | 2429 | ½:½ |
| 8 | GM | Schlosser, Philipp | 2555 | – |
FM | Straeter, Timo | 2347 | 1:0 |
Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim vs SK Turm Emsdetten
| 1 | GM | Ikonnikov, Viacheslav | 2558 | – |
GM | Mchedlishvili, Mikheil | 2613 | 0:1 |
| 2 | GM | Ginsburg, Gennadi | 2537 | – |
GM | Giri, Anish | 2552 | 0:1 |
| 3 | GM | Gurevic, Vladimir | 2470 | – |
GM | Spoelman, Wouter | 2554 | 0:1 |
| 4 | IM | Chernov, Vadim | 2433 | – |
IM | Feygin, Michael | 2546 | ½:½ |
| 5 | FM | Gerigk, Erasmus | 2335 | – |
IM | Janssen, Ruud | 2520 | ½:½ |
| 6 | FM | Schwalfenberg, Joerg | 2317 | – |
IM | Brandenburg, Daan | 2480 | 0:1 |
| 7 | IM | Maier, Christian | 2350 | – |
- |
Fiebig, Thomas | 2416 | ½:½ |
| 8 | FM | Vatter, Hans-Joachim | 2321 | – |
IM | Pruijssers, Roeland | 2415 | 0:1 |
The city of Emsdetten back in the thirties, in a painting by Heinz Mussenbrock
The two matches took places in the local "Sparkasse" (savings
bank)
Inside the bank the two lines of tables, one for each of the team matches
A commentary room with about a dozen spectators
Board one in Wattenscheid vs Baden-Baden: Evgeny Najer vs Alexei Shirov
(Shirov won)
On board two Etienne Bacrot, Baden-Baden, beat Mateusz Bartel, Wattenscheid
Florian Handke, Wattenscheid, vs Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Baden, was a draw
Who is this masked grandmaster – who has kindly annotated his game
for us below?
It's Dutch GM Anish Giri, who is playing board two for Emsdetten
Anish, who has played the Alekhine, is about to make his final move, 53...Re2-e7,
against Russian GM Gennadi Ginsburg, Heidelberg
The 15-year-old won his game with more time on his clock than when he started
(i.e. he used only the increments you get per move)
After the game Anish and Gennadi analyse in the refreshment room...
... which by the way provides food and drink for players and guests free of
charge
Captain Reinhard Lüke and President Wilhelm Loges of the Emsdetten Chess
Club
Reinhard Lüke is 48 and a club member since 1976 and has led the Emsdetten Bundesliga team as captain for seven years now. Dr. Wilhelm Loges, 60, is a medical doctor and the president of the club. He plays in the fourth team of Emsdetten. Both were very hospitable and made our stay in the town most enjoyable.
One big family: the full team of Emsdetten in the Bundesliga
After the round we asked ("forced" is such an ugly word) Anish to annotate his game for us. This young man, who is extrelemy computer savvy, speaks excellent English – his second language after Russian. Many thanks for these instructive and entertaining notes.
Ginsburg,G - Giri,A [B04]
Bundesliga 09-10 Linares/Spain, 21.03.2010 [Giri,Anish]
1.e4 Nf6!? 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3. White goes for a positional line, trying to get a slight advantage without risk... 4...dxe5 5.Nxe5 c6. The immideate Nd7 falls for Nxf7! 6.c4?! Logical but bad, due to 6...Nb4! Now Black is slightly better, since White is practically forced to move his knight to the edge (a3). 7.Be3. 7.a3? Qxd4! is the point. 7...Bf5 8.Na3. 8.Nd3 Would be okay for White if not for 8...e5! with advantage for Black, since the pawn is untouchable in any way. 8...Nd7 9.Nxd7 Qxd7 10.Be2
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10...e5!? A new move, and an ambitious, but also a somewhat risky try. I remembered that after 10...e6 Black is slightly better, but I was a bit afraid that White may equalise with 11.0-0 Be7 12.c5! bringing his knight to c4. I must add, however, that after 12...b5! 13.cxb6 axb6 14.Nc4 Qc7 Black remains slightly better. 11.0-0. 11.dxe5!? Was at least an alternative, but somehow we both were not really considering it. 11...Nd3+ (11...0-0-0!?) 12.Bxd3 Bxd3 Seems to be very good for Black, but White has (12...Qxd3 is also possible. Black has compensation, but White is a pawn up.) 13.Qb3!, which I missed, with idea to castle long. 11...exd4. I didn't like 11...0-0-0 because of 12.d5! 12.Qxd4? From now on White has to suffer in a horrible endgame with the dead knight on a3. 12.Bxd4 was much better. Black has a choice, but in any case the position remains ballanced. 12...0-0-0 was the most logical follow-up, but here (The slow 12...b6!? is a good option, followed by long castle.) 13.Bxa7 Qe6 14.Qe1! (14.Qa4 Qxe2 15.Bb6 Na6 16.Bxd8 Bxa3! was what I has calculated.) 14...Nd3 does not win any material since after 15.Bxd3 Bxd3 Black has the intermezzo 16.Qxe6+ and the rook will move to c1. However, Black will have some compensation, due to his bishop pair and again, that knight on a3. 12...Qxd4 13.Bxd4
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13...0-0-0?! This is in fact a mistake, but it was hard not to make such a move. 13...b6!?; 13...f6! was my original intention and was a good move, but I had failed to see that after 14.Bh5+!? I can simply move my king to c7 via d7 or d8. 14...Kd7 15.Rfd1 Kc7 with advantage. 14.Rfd1? 14.Bxa7! has to be tried, no matter what. I had planned 14...Rd2 15.Rfe1 Rxb2 16.c5! Be6! winning the a2 pawn. However White has 17.Nc4 Rxa2 18.Nb6+ Kd8 19.Nc4! and black probably has to repeat, since White is ready to start some kind of attack on the black king. 14...b6! 15.Bf3 f6!
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With the last two moves Black has killed all White's ideas, and now is ready to pick up the a2 pawn, which is doomed. 16.Be3 Bc5! 17.Bxc5 bxc5. It is clear that doubled pawns are not a weakness here, but a strength, since they control the important squares. 18.Rxd8+ Rxd8 19.Rd1 giving the a2 pawn, which would be lost anyway. 19...Rd4! The simple 19...Rxd1+ 20.Bxd1 Nxa2 is also possible, but I wanted to leave White no chances. 20.Kf1 Kd7 21.Ke2 Kd6 22.Ke3 Ke5 23.g3
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23...Nxa2. Now that White can't get his knight into the game I pick up the pawn. 24.Be2 g5! 25.f3 Nb4 26.Rf1 Bd3! 27.Rf2 a5 28.h3 f5 29.f4+ gxf4+ 30.gxf4+ Kf6 31.Bf3 Bxc4
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Taking the second pawn. The rest is clear. 32.Nxc4 Rxc4 33.Rd2 Ke6 34.Rd8 Nd5+ 35.Kf2 Rxf4 36.Rh8 Nf6 37.Rc8 Kd7 38.Rf8 Ke7 39.Rc8 Nd7 40.Kg3 Rb4 41.Bxc6 Ne5 42.Bd5 h5! The last touch. 43.Rxc5 h4+ 44.Kg2 Rxb2+ 45.Kf1 a4 46.Ra5 Rb4 47.Ke2 Kf6 48.Bg8 Re4+ 49.Kf2 Kg5 50.Bh7 Kf4 51.Ra6 Nd3+ 52.Kg2 Re2+ 53.Kg1 Re7
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Now the point is that after Rxa4 I play Kg3 threatening both, mate and the bishop. 53...Kg3 would mate, but I saw the win already some six moves ago, so I played without thinking. 0-1. [Click to replay]
Anish on the train back home – to see his parents and sisters for
the first time in three weeks
Links
The games of the Bundesliga are broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009! |
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