Today: Match of the week 3

The German team is supported by SCHACH-MAGAZIN 64. Should the German team be successful, every player of the German team will receive a three-month subscription of this magazine. SCHACH-MAGAZIN 64 appears twice per month, and is thus the most current German chess magazine. Accordingly, it focuses on news from current tournaments, and, after the start of the German "Bundesliga", in-depth reports about this event. A lot of the games in this magazine are annotated, making them easy to understand. The magazine also features a large tournament-calendar. A lot of chess tournaments, particularly German tournaments, but also many international tournaments are mentioned here. Highlights of the magazine are - among other articles - the regular training column by Daniel King, in which he entertainingly and very instructively presents a grandmaster game as test-game. This column alone makes the magazine well worth reading. The tactics-corner is also very good. Each issue features 9 tactical exercises, starting with rather easy brain-jogging, and gradually getting more difficult until high-level tactics have to be mastered. At the moment, the web-site presents examples of these two columns in particular.

Should the German server-players in the match actually fail to prove their current dominating position, the players of the world-team will win a three-month subscription of the English magazine CHESS. CHESS appears monthly. The current september-issue focuses on the report about the Einstein-candidates-tournament in Dortmund. This also explains the - for chess magazines - unusually attractive cover. It shows the sponsor of the tournament in Dortmund. In CHESS you will also find a great number of annotated games from current tournaments. However, you will not only find current reports, but also several training-columns - here Daniel King's column is published in its original English form - tactical exercises plus occasional historical articles, which take a look into the past. A closer look will be - obviuosöy - on the english chess szene.

THE RULES

As mentioned above, the tournament will be played in two stages.

The first stage starts around 19.50 server-time (registration starts at 19.30). This will be a seven-round swiss tournament, which is open for everyone. The tournament will take place in tournament hall B, and thus you don't need to have the rank of knight to participate. The time-limit is 5+0.

After these seven rounds the six best German players and the six best non-German players qualify for the German team or the World-team. Whats counts for being selected into a team is the national flag. Who doesn't choose a flag, won't be considered. Who chooses a flag which is obviously wrong, e.g. by opting for "German" though one cannot start for Germany, or by opting for non-German, though one can only start for Germany will neither be considered.

Here it is the decison of the tournament directors alone that count.

Now the second stage follows. The six qualified players will immediately afterwards play a scheveninger-system team-match. The time-limit of this match is 5+1. All members of the winning team will win the prizes mentioned above. Unfortunately, members of the defeated team will have to go away empty-handed.

The tournament will be played in the official tournament room B. This allows players with a rank of pawn - who might be comparatively new to the server - to take part in the tournament.

THE TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS

The tournament directors are - alternating as a rule - Stefan Dieckerhoff and Gaby Assmann. The third round will be directed by Stefan Dieckerhoff. Registration is possible from 7:30 pm (GMT +2) onwards in tournament hall B. Tournament and first stage stage will begin around 19:50.