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Last Saturday, the national teams of Romania and Germany tested their blitz and rapid skills on playchess.com: the juniors and the national teams played matches against each other, each on eight boards but with different formats and different time-controls – the juniors played two rapid games, the adults played an eight-round Scheveninger blitz tournament.
At 12 o'clock the juniors started their rapid-match. Three of the eight boards were occupied by girls and the German junior team was led by Luis Engel, a young grandmaster from Hamburg. Frederik Svane, Alexander Krastev, Alex Ngyuen and Richard Bethke represented the German colours on the following boards, while Lara Schulze, Jana Schneider and Annmarie Mütsch were the girls on the team.
Nominally, the German juniors were clear favourites but the Romanians clearly won the match. This was mainly due to the first round which the Romanians won 6½:1½.
In the second round Richard Bethke was the first to score for the German team and while Jana Schneider lost, Alex Nguyen, Lara Schulze and Annmarie Mütsch increased the lead to 4:1. However, with wins on the first two boards the Romanian juniors secured the match 9½:6½ though Germany won round 2 with 5:3.
| Board | Germany | Elo | 1½:6½ | Romania | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Luis Engel | 2532 | 0:1 | FM George Stoleriu | 2349 |
| 2 | Frederik Svane | 2421 | 0:1 | FM Mircea Țălu | 2352 |
| 3 | FM Alexander Krastev | 2340 | 0:1 | FM Samuel-Timotei Ghimpu | 2302 |
| 4 | FM Alex Nguyen | 2366 | 1:0 | FM Mihnea-Ionut Ognean | 2298 |
| 5 | FM Richard Bethke | 2332 | 0:1 | Andrei-Cristian Bulău | 2199 |
| 6 | FM Lara Schulze | 2314 | 0:1 | WIM Miruna-Daria Lehaci | 2223 |
| 7 | WIM Jana Schneider | 2270 | 0:1 | WFM Alessia-Mihaela Ciolacu | 2052 |
| 8 | WIM Annmarie Mütsch | 2219 | ½:½ | Mălina-Andreea Aciu | 2091 |
| Board | Germany | Elo | 5:3 | Romania | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Luis Engel | 2532 | 0:1 | FM George Stoleriu | 2349 |
| 2 | Frederik Svane | 2421 | 0:1 | FM Mircea Țălu | 2352 |
| 3 | FM Alexander Krastev | 2340 | 1:0 | FM Samuel-Timotei Ghimpu | 2302 |
| 4 | FM Alex Nguyen | 2366 | 1:0 | FM Mihnea-Ionut Ognean | 2298 |
| 5 | FM Richard Bethke | 2332 | 1:0 | Andrei-Cristian Bulău | 2199 |
| 6 | FM Lara Schulze | 2314 | 1:0 | WIM Miruna-Daria Lehaci | 2223 |
| 7 | WIM Jana Schneider | 2270 | 0:1 | WFM Alessia-Mihaela Ciolacu | 2052 |
| 8 | WIM Annmarie Mütsch | 2219 | 1:0 | Mălina-Andreea Aciu | 2091 |
The national teams played on eight boards, including one junior and one woman and both teams came with a strong line-up.
Unlike the match between the juniors the grandmasters played a blitz match in Scheveningen mode that is each player in both teams played against each player of the other team.
At the end of the day the German team won 36½:27½. Top scorer of the event was Elisabeth Pähtz who finished with 6½/8. Georg Meyer finished with 6.0/8, Matthias Blübaum and Vincent Keymer both scored 5½/8.
