Final Report DSOL: „The Unlucky Third Place"
(mh) On the last preliminary round of the DSOL, almost all teams were once again in action.
Unfortunately, none of the teams managed the top two places, but mostly only narrowly.
Only the 7th team will represent us in the knockout games, because in the 13th league there are only two divisions and therefore the top four places qualify.
1. Team (League 4B, 8th place, 2 match points, 10.5 board points)
The goal was to land the first win against SC Diogenes, who were actually seeded second in the league (by DWZ average), and to hand the wooden spoon to the opponent. We had to do without Volker at short notice, and the almost regular line-up of Elias, Christoph, Martin and Alexander, who are on average to be rated at least 200 DWZ points weaker than the opponents, did (almost) excellently in their games. Christoph won, Martin unfortunately had to accept a draw, and Elias and Alexander each lost very narrowly. So last place is on the books, but only against the top two teams of the league did we clearly lose; otherwise there were mostly unlucky defeats and also two draws (above all against Dachau).
2. Team (League 6B, 6th place, 4 match points, 12 board points)
The 2nd team lost its last match 1.5:2.5 and thereby stayed in 6th place. All in all, in a strongly manned league, it was mostly not possible to play consistently with the best players, and therefore the placing is okay.
3. Team (League 9A, 3rd place, 8 match points, 13.5 board points)
The 3rd team (in its best line-up) “knocked one out” once more and won 3.5 to 0.5. Unfortunately Hamburg did not do us the favour and also won their match, so that they stay ahead of us in second place. But the two defeats against the top two teams could not be compensated for with that.
**4. Team (League 9B, 5th place, 6 match points, 12 board points)
** In a rather even league, where almost everyone beat everyone, the luck (and a few more successful games) was missing in the end to intervene in the fight for the top two places. In the last match there was a 1.5:2.5 defeat against the 1st, but here too, from my point of view, more was possible.
**5. Team (League 12D, 3rd place, 8 match points, 13.5 board points)
** The 5th team, with only one defeat and two draws, unfortunately also did not qualify for the knockout games. In the last match there was “only” a 2:2 against the second-to-last team of the league, who up to then had only won against the hopelessly last side. Benedikt and Veronika won convincingly, whereas Diana and Anton unfortunately played “below their potential”. Luckily, even a win would have had no different effect, because Paderborn also drew and therefore (with more board points) has one more match point.
**6. Team (League 12C, 3rd place, 9 match points, 17 board points)
** As already written recently, the 6th team is our unlucky team, and in the end (unfortunately) self-inflicted error also comes into play. With a 4:0 win in the last match, second place could still have been reached. But since one board remained unmanned, this was already impossible right at the start of the games. Respect to the other three players, who all won their games and thereby made the narrow elimination even somewhat “unluckier”. I would like to mention Lukas individually here, who won all six of his games (mostly convincingly).
**7. Team (League 13B, 3rd place, 7 match points, 15.5 board points)
** Once again a third place. But here it leads, as written above, to the only qualification for the quarter-final. Congratulations on that to our “youngest”. On the final round it was a rest day for the team, so that here the Paderborn side still moved past.