High tension in the penultimate round of the U14 championship, more than a match even without board 1
On Saturday the conclusion of this year’s U14 championship took place. The list of absentees was long: Lukas had a more important chess engagement, Moritz and Smrthi were in quarantine, Vedarth and Zhafaar were not willing to play because of the high incidence rate, Oliver had gone to the mountains, Oliver, the father of Jonas, had a birthday, so Jonas could not play his long-awaited DWZ game, Minh Hieu had cancelled because of school, Saksham had cold symptoms, and for JianQi Saturday is always inconvenient. Yet, besides the two U14 teams in Garching, we had also entered a U16 team in Haar. Of course we could have filled the missing boards with newcomers, but it would have made little sense.
I picked Vroni up early in the morning and we drove to Garching. As already against Garching at the beginning of December in Aschheim, we played against Tarrasch in the same line-up, that is without Lukas on the first board, which unfortunately again remained empty. Back then Tugrul against Daniel and Vroni against Leander took the points, David lost against Noa. This time the opponents, apart from the 4th board, were in the same weight class. So on the fourth board an exciting game developed. After the quiet opening phase Hüseyin gathered momentum and had various knight-fork threats and a pawn in his sights. Vroni, however, was able to counter this critical moment in the middlegame so well with her own threats that the opponent lost the thread. All this happened after Tugrul’s win against Alexander; Tugrul acted in his usual manner and exchanged his rook for a minor piece and two pawns. With his bishop pair he increased the pressure. He captured further pawns and, just like Alexander, brought a passed pawn to the sixth rank. His pawn survived and Alexander resigned. David increased the pressure on the second board but, with two rooks and the knight, found no mating net for the king driven to the edge. In the dramatic endgame phase, in the final minutes of the regular thinking time and in front of several tense spectators, Pierre gained the upper hand and took the point for Tarrasch. For the second time we managed 2 out of 3 against a direct rival; once again it was boards 3 and 4 that guaranteed the points, Vroni and Tugrul scored 100%. Against Tarrasch, given the exciting endgame on the second board, there had clearly been even more in it.
In the second team Maxim convinced against Mete, Tugce surprisingly lost against Adrian, Bhav, like his opponent Oskar, both arrived late, and on the 4th board Valentin defeated our Lucas. Vroni was picked up; the original plan was to bring Maxim and Tugce into the first team and to play only with Bhav and Lucas in the second team. However, Maxim expressed his wish to play against a strong opponent. He was allowed to play against the four-year-younger exceptional talent Daniel. He lost a pawn and then the game. Nevertheless Maxim has developed splendidly and will continue to strengthen the U14 team.
The U16 played in the first round against the eventual winner Vaterstetten with three players, since Johann was late and could not find the entrance. After the grace period of half an hour, this point went to Vaterstetten without a fight. The other three also lost; Kai got to 52 moves after a one-move blunder of his bishop. In the second round against Haar we were three players, since Johann had to leave. Samy managed the biggest surprise: he took the point against the Haar team’s top player, who against Samy was considered the big favourite because of his DWZ lead of 550 points. Samy survived the opening and the opponent’s pressure phase and turned the game around. Elias took a draw against Korbinian. Kai unfortunately lost against Julius.