The pandemic has been the subject of many articles lately, some of my own included. While I have mostly presented the hardships that came along with it, there have been some positive moments as well. One of these aspects is the one which inspired me to write this article!
I have been playing for many years in the German Bundesliga, since 2009 to be more precise. After having been in Germany so many times, I do understand some of the language and I can even say some basic things. However, I have never seriously studied German and if I listened to German speakers at a dinner party, I could probably catch the subject of the conversation, but not more. However, the pandemic has offered me the chance to do some of the things I have always wanted to, but for which I have never been able to find time. One of those things was studying German, so, some months ago, I joined an online course and since then, three days a week, my mornings start with ‘Deutsch lernen’. While typing, I couldn’t help thinking "How do I say ‘with’ in German? Aha - ‘mit’ - ‘mit’ always needs to be used with the Dative case…"
To be honest, this language fascinates me – there are so many things one should consider before saying anything! I remember when I was studying English, I found it difficult to take care of the word order in a sentence, but well, in German – it is a whole new level! Articles, prepositions, cases: the word order changes more often than my predilection for one type of shoes or another! It feels like my brain has to run on a few additional CPUs when I speak it, but when I say something right it is such a pleasure!
If you start to wonder how this article relates to chess – I’m getting to it! Well, it took me a month or so to get used to putting the verb always at the second position in a sentence, even when the sentence did not start with the subject, only to later experience the pleasures of conjunctive sentences, where everything changes drastically! Compared to Romanian or Russian, where one can build a sentence whichever way one pleases, or even to English, where there are some rules, which, however, can be broken occasionally, there is no room for improvising when building a sentence in German – everything has to follow a certain order.
This made me think – if one is used from an early age to operate on this rigorous order does that somehow transpose to chess? Is a chess player whose first language is German fated to build his or her playing style guided by this order? Let’s take a look!
The first player who comes to mind when saying ‘rigorous German style’ is GM Georg Meier.

Georg Meier | Photo: Grenkechess
He is currently number five in Germany and has been among the top players of the country for many years.
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.d4 Nf6 5.c4 dxc4 6.Na3 0-0 7.0-0 c5 8.dxc5 Qxd1?! 8...c3 9.Nb5 Na6 9...cxb2?! 10.Bxb2 Na6 11.Rc1 10.Nxc3 Nxc5 11.Be3 Nfe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Bd4 Bxd4 14.Qxd4 Qxd4 15.Nxd4 Nd6 16.Rac1 9.Rxd1 Nfd7 9...Na6?! 10.c6! bxc6 11.Nxc4 10.Nxc4 Nxc5 11.Be3 Nba6 12.Rac1 Bf5 13.Nd4 Be4 14.f3! Bd5 15.Nb5?! 15.Nf5!? gxf5 16.Rxd5± 15...e6 15...Bc6 16.Nd4 Bd5 16.f4! Bxg2 17.Kxg2 b6 18.Kf3 Rfc8 18...Rfd8?? 19.Rxd8+ Rxd8 20.Nxa7+- 19.b3 Bf8 20.Ncd6 Rd8 21.Rd4 Bg7 22.Rdc4 Bf8 23.Rd4 Bg7 24.Rd2! Bf8 25.Rc4 Rab8 26.Ne4 Nxe4 27.Rxd8 Rxd8 28.Rxe4 Nc5 28...Ra8? 29.Ra4± 28...Nb4!? 29.Nxa7 29.a3 Nc2 29...Ra8 30.Bxb6 Rb8 31.Be3 31.Rxb4!? Bxb4 32.Bd4 31...Nxa2 29.Bxc5 Bxc5 30.Nxa7± Rd1 30...Ra8 31.Ra4! 31.b4 Rf1+ 32.Kg2 Rf2+ 33.Kh3 Bf8 34.Nc6 h6 35.a4 g5 36.fxg5 hxg5 37.Re5 Bg7 38.Rxg5 Rxe2 39.Rb5 Ra2 40.Rxb6 Rxa4 41.Rb8+ Bf8 42.b5 Kg7 43.Rxf8 Kxf8 44.b6 1–0
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
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Meier,G | 2655 | Edouard,R | 2607 | 1–0 | 2017 | D73 | Bundesliga 2017-18 | 6.5 |
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Going through the games of Meier – and I think the one which we’ve just seen is quite typical – one might think that there might be something to my assumption regarding the ‘German order’. However, let’s not rush to conclusions, but rather dig deeper into the matter.
It only feels fair to look at the games of Germany’s number one female player (since what seems to me forever): IM Elisabeth Paehtz.

Elisabeth Paehtz | Photo: Pascal Simon
I have played and prepared against Elizabeth many times and the difference between the games of Georg Meier and Elisabeth Paehtz is obvious. I once played against GM Meier and it was more or less clear to me what opening would appear on the board, but when preparing for games against Elizabeth, it often might be more effective to just say a prayer and go to sleep. Jokes aside, when playing against Meier, who usually sticks to his repertoire, the biggest challenge seemed to be to study a line deep enough, whereas things are often highly unpredictable when playing against Elisabeth. I will not argue that one approach is better than the other – they are simply entirely different – but the first approach relies on building up the game around one’s strengths, whereas the second approach tries to find and to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent.
Let’s have a look at a typical game to understand Elizabeth’s style better.
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 h6 6...c6 7.Bd3 Be7 7.Bf4! 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bd3 0-0 9.Nge2 c6 10.0-0 Ne4 7...c6 8.Bd3 Nb6 9.Nf3 9.h3 Bd6 10.Nge2 0-0 11.0-0 Re8 9...Bg4 9...Bd6?! 10.Qc2!? Bxf3 11.gxf3 Bd6 12.Be5 12.Bg3!? Bxg3 12...0-0 13.0-0-0± 13.hxg3± 12...0-0? 12...Bxe5! 13.dxe5 Nfd7 14.f4 Qe7∞ 13.Rg1± Re8 14.f4 Bf8 15.Qe2 c5 16.0-0-0 cxd4 17.Bxd4 Rc8 18.Kb1 Bc5 19.Nb5 Nbd7 20.Bf5 Rc6 21.Bc3 Nf8 22.Bc2 Ne6 23.Qd3 a6 24.Bxf6! Qxf6 25.Qh7+ Kf8 26.Nc3 g6 27.Qxh6+ Qg7 28.Qxg7+ Nxg7 29.Rxd5 f5 30.Bb3 Nh5 31.Rd7 Re7 32.Rd8+ Kg7 33.Nd5 Rf7 34.a3 Rd6 35.Rc8 Rc6 36.Rxc6 bxc6 37.Nc3 Rd7 38.Be6 Rd2 39.Bxf5 Rxf2 40.Rxg6+ Kf8 41.Bg4 Ng7 42.Nd1 1–0
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Paehtz,E | 2474 | Marin,M | 2597 | 1–0 | 2016 | D35 | Reykjavik Open 2016 | 8.10 |
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I think that this game characterizes IM Paehtz’s playing style very well – clever preparation and a very flexible repertoire, a good feeling for dynamics and a good technique. She often changes her approach and improvises…
So, I would say this means her style doesn’t really go along with my ‘German order’ theory.
But it still has been very interesting for me to dig into this theory of mine and study games of these two players. Of course, one can’t generalize a whole nation’s chess style based on the rules of their language, but my feeling is that there could be a connection – maybe the language you grow up in is not a 100% factor which defines one’s style of play, but it might be a factor which influences it to some degree, though there are of course other factors that shape the way you play chess… What do you think?
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