Bavarian U12 semi-final at the listed Jugendtreff Au
This time we were hosts of a U12 semi-final; after the DWZ tournaments and with the DGT equipment loaned by Marc Lang, it was not particularly difficult. Only four tables had to be set up in the hall, two of them on the stage. Here the home team played on the DGT boards. The first match was a tough one. We faced Tegernsee, who were slightly favoured. On board 1 with the exceptional talent Shen Tengrui, on board 2 with the match-hardened Marco Limmer (Bavarian U12 champion!), Jakob Greive and Cosima Wagner (took part in the German Individual Championship, but was also successful with the girls’ team). On our side played David, who had injured himself playing football, Tugrul, who had already scored the point against Haar on Friday and helped the 2nd team to promotion, his battle-tested twin sister Tugce, and our wild card, the youngest of the bunch, Jonas. This is how it looked after Tugce’s win on the stage:
Broadcast U12 semi-final
Jonas surprised us; he gave up a pawn, Cosima had two connected passed pawns, and he organised his counterattack. After the minor pieces were exchanged, Jonas looked carefully at his scoresheet and, although the rook was attacked, moved his queen, which did not defend it, and claimed threefold repetition of position, which Cosima also confirmed. So he managed a surprise draw. We already knew what he was capable of, but that was really something! On top of that there was another threefold repetition on board 1. Here, though, both sides were in time trouble; Shen and David fought it out and had to settle for half a point each. Tugrul on board two still had a score to settle over his defeat at the Bavarian Championship. Marco kept up for a while but ultimately had to resign. So we managed a 3-1 against the strong Tegernsee players and demonstrated for our part that we are well prepared for the DVM U12 at the end of the year. The youth centre had two table football tables, a table tennis table and a lovely garden by the Auermühlbach. The guests spread out across the various rooms. We had set up one room for offline analysis at the board and one for the broadcast of the DGT boards. We think the Jugendtreff is excellently suited for such events. Unfortunately, the Saturdays are fully booked. Probably also 9 July, on which we would have liked to hold the final again at this venue. But now it’s others’ turn.
In the second round we faced Tarrasch. Here Tugrul beat Ferdinand the fastest, and Jonas scored too. It was already 2-0 when David and Alexander wanted to agree to a draw and asked about the rule, whether they had to have played 20 moves. That is not the case, but the team captain should be asked before any draw offer. Of course Alexander was to keep playing. And he won. Georg and Vedarth made a few slips and also agreed to a draw with threefold repetition of position. So we were already through. Between Tegernsee and Tarrasch there was the final for 2nd place. Shen, Marco and Cosima won, Jakob drew against Georg. So it was clear that Tegernsee lived up to their role as favourites. In the third round, Zugzwang surprisingly managed a draw and thus the first match point against us. Smrthi gave away her advantageous position, and Vedarth, who had kept up well and reached a rook endgame with an extra pawn against Mete, also lost. Jonas, on the other hand, won against Kevin, and Tugrul settled his second score over a lost game against Adrian at the Munich U12 Championship. He delivered a firework of tactical motifs against Adrian in the final phase of the game and won. His rating must by now be slowly over 1900, once the matches in which he has mostly taken part victoriously are evaluated. He won four DWZ-rated games within 24 hours against seasoned club players, including the Bavarian champion in the U12!