Tegernsee Open: Szymon Gumularz starts with 5.0/5!

by Stefan Liebig
11/6/2025 – A flying start at Lake Tegernsee! Polish grandmaster Szymon Gumularz storms to the top of the OIBM 2025 with a flawless record of five wins in five rounds. In round 6, he faces Luis Engel, who is half a point behind the leader in a group of five pursuers. | Photos: Organiser / Sandra Schmidt
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After five rounds, Gumularz, the 23-year-old grandmaster from Krakow, has taken the lead in the Open International Bavarian Championships (OIBM) with a perfect score of 5 out of 5 points. In the fifth round, the Bundesliga player from SV Werder Bremen confidently defeated US newcomer Brewington Hardaway with the black pieces:

With his flawless start, Gumularz leads the field ahead of a strong quintet of pursuers: Luis Engel (Germany), Abdimalik Abdisalimov (Uzbekistan), Christian Bauer (France), Kirk Ghazarian and Paulius Pultinevicius (Lithuania) are close behind with 4.5 points.

In the first part of the video series, we will look at White’s four main moves: 6. Bg5, 6. Be3, 6. Be2 and 6. Bc4.

Behind leader Szymon Gumularz, the field remains close. More than twenty players, each with four points, are waiting for their chance to join the battle for the top spots in the second half of the tournament.

The race for the women's title is particularly exciting. The two Kazakhs Liya Kurmangalieva and Alua Nurman have each scored 4 out of 5, giving them a slight lead, and could make the women's competition a purely Kazakh affair. For the WGM, overall victory is still within reach.

Alua Nurman | Photo: Sandra Schmidt

However, the other contenders are not far behind. Just half a point behind the group led by the Kazakh duo is German national player Jana Schneider, among others. After her early defeat against the current leader Gumularz, the local hero has found her way back to success and is keeping pace with the leaders.

Standings after round 5

Rk Name Pts  Tb1 
1 Gumularz, Szymon 5 2422
2 Pultinevicius, Paulius 4,5 2394
3 Engel, Luis 4,5 2387
4 Abdisalimov, Abdimalik 4,5 2381
5 Bauer, Christian 4,5 2290
6 Ghazarian, Kirk 4,5 2242
7 Gholami Orimi, Mahdi 4 2439
8 Kurmangaliyeva, Liya 4 2404
9 Hardaway, Brewington 4 2395
10 Visakh, N R 4 2376
11 Parvanyan, Ashot 4 2370
12 Gokerkan, Cem Kaan 4 2367
13 Sasikiran, Krishnan 4 2367
14 Wunderlich, Elias 4 2356
15 Vrolijk, Liam 4 2353
16 Nurman, Alua 4 2350
17 Gopal, G.N. 4 2323
18 Tabatabaei, M. Amin 4 2300
19 Rathanvel, V S 4 2277
20 Zelbel, Patrick 4 2276
21 Chanda, Sandipan 4 2272
22 Nithin, Babu 4 2264
23 Horvath, Dominik 4 2251
24 Naumann, Alexander 4 2248
25 Costa, Leonardo 4 2237

In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
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Stefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
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60m English The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.