OSG Baden-Baden wins Bundesliga Championship

A dramatic finish

The OSG Baden-Baden was clear favourite to win the Bundesliga Championship Tournament but the SC Viernheim was also seen as a contender. Both teams confirmed their roles as favourites and won the first six of their seven matches without too many problems but in the seventh, final and decisive round they had to play against each other. As Baden-Baden had more board points, Viernheim had to win the match to win the event.

Both teams brought a line-up of international top players to the boards – not even one single German took part in this crucial match for the title of German Team Champion.

After a dramatic match Baden-Baden narrowly won 4½-3½. The Ukrainian Grandmaster Sergey Fedorchuk who played against French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot was the only player from Viernheim who could win.

Francisco Vallejo Pons who won against Dr. Bassem Amin and Arkadij Naiditsch who defeated Igor Kovalenko scored the decisive points for Baden-Baden. Naiditsch quickly achieved a better position against Kovalenko but it took some time before he converted.

An interview with Arkadij Naiditsch

But it was Michael Adams who saved the 4½-3½ win for Baden-Baden. The English Grandmaster was more than once lost against David Anton Guijarro from Spain but in the end managed to escape into a draw.

1	GM	2764		Shakhriyar Mamedyarov		½	:	½		Fabiano Caruana		2835	GM	1
2	GM	2669		Vladimir Malakhov		½	:	½		Maxime Vachier-Lagrave		2778	GM	2
3	GM	2682		Yuriy Kryvoruchko		½	:	½		Levon Aronian		2773	GM	4
4	GM	2688		Anton Korobov		½	:	½		Richard Rapport		2760	GM	7
5	GM	2688		David Anton Guijarro		½	:	½		Michael Adams		2706	GM	8
6	GM	2686		Dr. Bassem Amin		0	:	1		Francisco Vallejo Pons		2710	GM	9
7	GM	2645		Igor Kovalenko		0	:	1		Arkadij Naiditsch		2624	GM	10
8	GM	2615		Sergey A. Fedorchuk		1	:	0		Etienne Bacrot		2673	GM	11

2	GM	2620		Erwin L'Ami		0	:	1		Gata Kamsky		2674	GM	2
3	GM	2630		Aryan Tari		½	:	½		Andreas Heimann		2617	GM	3
4	GM	2682		Jorden van Foreest		½	:	½		Georg Meier		2622	GM	4
5	GM	2585		Mads Andersen		½	:	½		Matthias Blübaum		2660	GM	6
6	GM	2615		Loek Van Wely		0	:	1		Alexander Donchenko		2654	GM	7
7	GM	2585		Jan Smeets		0	:	1		Vincent Keymer		2568	GM	8
9	GM	2539		Alexander Naumann		0	:	1		Dmitrij Kollars		2585	GM	11
11	IM	2401		Jörg Wegerle		0	:	1		Zdenko Kozul		2597	GM	14

1	GM	2635		Laurent Fressinet		1	:	0		Szymon Gumularz		2518	IM	4
2	GM	2680		Luke J McShane		½	:	½		Marco Baldauf		2503	GM	5
3	GM	2678		Alexander Areshchenko		½	:	½		Dr. Jan Michael Sprenger		2482	GM	6
4	GM	2602		Zahar Efimenko		1	:	0		Felix Blohberger		2467	IM	7
7	GM	2571		Wouter Spoelman		0	:	1		Krzysztof Jakubowski		2481	GM	8
9	GM	2580		Jan Werle		½	:	½		Emil Schmidek		2395	FM	11
12	IM	2456		Martin Zumsande		1	:	0		Rainer Polzin		2415	GM	12
17		2304		Nikolas Wachinger		1	:	0		Johannes Florstedt		2353	FM	13

2	IM	2461		Thomas Koch		½	:	½		Sebastian Bogner		2571	GM	2
3	IM	2435		Thibaut Vandenbussche		0	:	1		Noel Studer		2573	GM	4
4	IM	2347		Tom Piceu		½	:	½		Klaus Bischoff		2503	GM	5
5	FM	2307		Felix Klein		1	:	0		Michael Fedorovsky		2422	IM	6
6	IM	2348		Oscar Lemmers		0	:	1		Martin Lokander		2406	IM	7
8	FM	2234		Rudolf Meessen		½	:	½		Philip Lindgren		2358	IM	8
12		2130		Dr. Philipp Lamby		0	:	1		Makan Rafiee		2334	FM	10
15		1969		Christoph Jablonowski		0	:	1		Andreas Schenk		2431	IM	12

Final standings

Games

Impressions from the final day

Links

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