In the MMM with four teams
On Wednesday we played at my first chess club, the Roter Turm. At the last minute I found out that Alexander wouldn’t make it in time and put myself on board 8. Two years without practice made themselves felt. In the end there was only a draw. Only Volker fared worse; he too had taken a break during the Corona period. He resigned. The others were clear favourites and the form on paper played out at the boards. We won 6.5 to 1.5 and have taken over the lead in the table.
The other three teams hosted at the ASZ Laim on Friday. Two players each were missing from the third and fourth teams, but our opponents had also not turned up with full teams, so none of the opposing teams’ players had to be sent home. But one of us was caught out in the second team. Wynnie’s opponent from Garching7 didn’t show up. So we took the lead here straight away. Robert was next; after being down the exchange he managed to turn the game around. After his point we were already leading 2-0. Niklas on board 6 came under pressure in the opening and couldn’t recover from it. After it became 2-1, Alexander and Marcus followed suit for us. Anton had to resign. We could be satisfied with the 4-2 result. The team has thus become a promotion candidate.
In the third team, Lukas was lined up on board one, Tugrul on board two, Dominik on board four and Tugce on board five. It was especially interesting on board 1 against Moritz Heimbächer and on board 2 against the Bavarian vice-champion in the U16, Clemens Lerchl. Lukas was behind on the clock at first, but after an hour things were balanced both on the board and on the clock. Tugrul attacked boldly and managed to win a pawn. He had the bishop pair but opened the position so much that he was counterattacked. He had demanded everything of his opponent and we could be satisfied with his performance. His twin sister was already under heavy pressure in the opening; we wouldn’t have thought, though, that her board would be among the last to finish. In the meantime Lukas had to resign. Dominik gradually worked out a positional and material advantage. Tugce meanwhile managed to keep playing under pressure and also demanded everything of her opponent with threats of her own. In the endgame with queen, rook and knight but with six extra pawns on White’s side, I thought of a stalemate possibility, since the knight and rook could have offered themselves as sacrifices with check. She pursued a different plan, however, which led to defeat. All in all, we could be satisfied with her mental abilities. With this she is well equipped for the German Championship. The match thus ended 3-1 for Vaterstetten.
The fourth team hosted Bayern 10. On board one played Gerd, on board three Maxim, on board five Ghazi and on board six Jianqi. Jianqi and Ghazi won, Maxim and Gerd lost, so the team earned its first match point with the 2-2.