Niclas Huschenbeth and Dmitrij Kollars were the outstanding players at the 90th German Chess Championships, scoring win after win. After 9 rounds both had 8 points and achieved Elo-performances that were close to the 2800 mark. For both players it was the best tournament of their career so far.
Head-to-head race: Huschenbeth and Kollars
The German Championships are Swiss tournaments for which German grandmasters and the champions of the German state associations are qualified. However, in the past a lot of the German grandmasters have often been reluctant to take part in the national championships because the conditions were not attractive enough. This year four grandmasters joined the battle for the national title: Niclas Huschenbeth, Dmitrij Kollers, René Stern and Alexander Graf.
The 90th Championship was part of the new "Chess Congress" in Magdeburg. 32 players were fighting for the title, among them many young players of which Luis Engel (Elo 2512), who lives in Hamburg and still goes to school, was the "best of the rest" after the four grandmasters.
Luis Engel
Up to the last round the championship was a neck-to-neck race because the eventual co-winners forced each other to give their very best. Huschenbeth won in the last round with Black against Jonas Rosner, Kollars with White against Lukas Winterberg.
In the 6th round Niclas Huschenbeth used a fine combination to win against Alexander Graf, a former member of the German national team:
With 23...♝xh2 followed by 24...♛h4 and 25...♞g3 Black decided the game in his favour.
In 2010 Niclas Huschenbeth became German Champion for the first time and now, nine years later, he won his second title.
Marta Michna won the Women's Championship also scored 8/9 but came clear first. Lara Schulze followed half a point behind and won silver.
Marta Michna, left, with White
