Germans lead in Austrian League

by André Schulz
11/8/2022 – Last Thursday, the new season of the Austrian League started. Top favourite is the team of ASV Linz with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on board one. However, the star-studded team had a somewhat rocky start and drew two of their first four matches, and now share third and fourth place. With three wins and one draw the teams of Jenbach and Ottakring share the lead. | Photo: Matthias Blübaum (left) plays against Markus Ragger | Photos: Knapp/Theny (Austrian Chess Federation)

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The team championship in Austria is played as a 12-team round robin and each match is a duel on six boards. All 12 teams meet on three extended weekends at one location to play their matches.

The first host was Jenbach. The line-up of the team Sparkasse Jenbach is almost identical to the German national team. Matthias Blübaum, Rasmus Svane, Alexander Donchenko, Rasmus Svane and the former German national player Rainer Buhmann form the basis of the team. In this line-up, the team usually belongs to the favourites for the title, which Jenbach indeed won in 2018 and 2020. But last year, the title went to St. Veit - the Croatian national team.

However, this year's favourite is the ASV Linz, a new team in Austria's first league. The team is sponsored by entrepreneur Markus Stöttinger, who recently also became new president of the Austrian Chess Federation. Stöttinger has signed 13 Grandmasters for Linz, including top Grandmasters Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Parham Maghsoodloo and other well-known players. With a rating-average of almost 2700, the ASV Linz is the clear favourite to win the title.

Ivan Saric (left, with White) vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

But on their debut in the League, the ASV Linz suffered a minor setback and only reached a 3-3 draw against the defending champion St. Veit. On Friday, Linz won a competitive match, in which seven games were decided, against Feffernitz.

In round three Linz came to a clear 4.5:1.5 win against SPG Fürstenfeld/Hartberg but on Sunday followed another 3-3 draw, this time against Jenbach - all six games of this match ended in a draw.

Jenbach had won all their three previous matches - against Sparkasse Götzis, Maria Saal and St. Veit, and after four rounds they share the lead with SK Ottakring. Linz shares third and fourth place with Feffernitz.

Top scorer of Jenbach (and the league) is Rainer Buhmann with 3.5/4. In round 3 he won an interesting game against Ante Saric: After avoiding a theoretical discussion in the opening, Buhmann sacrificed a pawn for an attack, which after some complications led to a better double-rook endgame that Buhmann won convincingly.

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.e3 With this modest move Buhmann avoids theoretical discussions in the modern lines of the Queen's Gambit. Be7 5.b3 0-0 6.Bd3 c5 7.0-0 cxd4 8.exd4 Nc6 9.Bb2 Nb4 10.Be2 b6 11.Nc3 Bb7 12.Ne5 Rc8 13.Rc1 Ne4 14.a3 Nxc3 15.Rxc3 Nc6 16.Ng4!? Black equalised easily and with this double-edged move White offers a pawn to pose Black problems. dxc4 17.bxc4 Nxd4?! The engines prefer 17...Qxd4 and after 18.Qa1 f6 they do not believe that White has enough compensation for the pawn and prefer Black. 18.Rd3 Nxe2+ 19.Qxe2 Qc7 20.Nh6+ Kh8 21.Qg4 f6 22.Qxe6! White stops his attack to liquidate into a slightly better endgame. Qxc4 23.Qxc4 Rxc4 24.Rd7 Rc2?! Better was 24...Bc5 25.Rxb7 Rc2 26.Bc1 gxh6 27.Bxh6 Re8 and Black has enough counterplay to hold. 25.Rxe7 Rxb2 26.Rxb7 gxh6 27.Rxa7 In this double rook-endgame material is equal but White's much better structure gives him good winning chances. Kg8 28.Rc1 Rf7 29.Ra4 b5 30.Rc8+ Rf8 31.Rg4+ Kf7 32.Rc7+ Ke6 33.g3 Ra2 34.Re4+ Kf5 35.Rf4+ Kg6 36.Rg4+ Kf5 37.h3 Rxa3 38.Rc5+ Ke6 39.Rxb5 Ra7 40.Rh5 f5 41.Rxh6+ Rf6 42.Rgh4 Rxh6 43.Rxh6+ Ke5 White is a pawn up and has the better structure which makes the endgame extremely difficult to play for Black. 44.Kg2 Re7 45.Ra6 Rb7 46.h4 Rc7 47.h5 Rb7 48.f4+ Kd5 49.Rf6 Rb2+ 50.Kh3 Ke4 51.Rf7 h6 52.Rf6 Kf3 53.Rxh6 Rb1 54.Kh4 Rh1+ 55.Kg5 Kxg3 56.Ra6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Buhmann,R2561Saric,A25101–02022D30AUT Bundesliga 2022-233.30

Standings after four rounds

Rk. Team  Tb1 
1 SK Sparkasse Jenbach 7
2 SK Ottakring 7
3 SV Raika Rapid Feffernitz 6
4 ASV Linz 6
5 SV - Das Wien - St. Veit 5
6 Schach ohne Grenzen 4
7 SK Sparkasse Götzis 4
8 SV Sparkasse Grieskirchen 3
9 SK MPÖ Maria Saal 2
10 SPG Fürstenfeld/Hartberg 2
11 SK Hohenems 2
12 tschaturanga 0

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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