Germany and Romania play online-match with top grandmasters!

Press release of the German Chess Federation:

Germany and Romania with top lineup

For some years Germany and Romania have been connected by a chess friendship. In 2015 an international match of the men's national teams took place in Medias, Romania, to prepare for the European Team Championship. The German team won 14:11.

In 2018 we invited the Romanian national junior teams U18(Boys and Girls) to Bad Blankenburg. Directly before the European Team Championship U18 we played a double round international match which Germany won with 7½:4½. However, the Romanian boys became European Champion afterwards! On Saturday, April 25th the national teams of Germany and Romania will meet again on the playchess.com server - at 12 o'clock CEST the juniors will start to play, at 15 o'clock CEST the adults will make their first moves.

Both adults teams start with eight players, including the best woman and the best U18 player. The match will be played according to the Scheveningen system, the time-control is 3+2. Thus, the match will last about two hours in total and the winner is the team that scores 32½ or more board points.

Germany plays with Georg Meier, Matthias Blübaum, Alexander Donchenko, Niclas Huschenbeth, Andreas Heimann, Rasmus Svane, Vincent Keymer (U18), Elisabeth Pähtz (Women), and Dennis Wagner as reserve.

Romania plays with Constantin Lupulescu, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Mircea-Emilian Parligras, Andrei Istratescu, Marius Manolache, Vladislav Nevednichy, David Gavrilescu (U18), and Irina Bulmaga (Women).

Captain Germany: GM Dorian Rogozenco
Captain Romania: GM Alin Berescu

Germany's national coach Dorian Rogozenco says about the match:

"It is striking that both teams start with almost all of their best players. The motivation is very high and they will fight hard. I am not a big fan of predictions, especially when it comes to blitz chess, but if I had to give a tip, I would say that we will repeat our success of 2015 and win again. In any case, we can look forward to 64 very interesting and exciting blitz games."

Junior team match – starting 12 o'clock CEST

At noon the junior team will kick off the event. Each team consists of five boys and three girls, the time-limit is 5+0. In case of a tie, a play-off will take place.

The German team: 

Announcement at the German Chess Federation (German)...