Qualification for the U10 with 3rd place: Narrow second place for the U20, but promotion to the Bayernliga is still possible
Yesterday was one of the most successful days for our teams in the club’s history! Two youth teams played with good chances against strong rivals for the qualification spots and for promotion.
The U20 team received SC Garching as its first opponent in the multifunction room of the Gymnasium München Moosach. They probably came in their best line-up as well, since they had chances at the title and wanted to seize them. To do so it was necessary to beat us. On the first three boards there was a clear DWZ advantage for Garching: Denis Werner, with Oberliga experience, against Niklas; Elias Wunderlich, five years younger but with a good 200 DWZ points more on his account than his opponent Ardian; Emily Alferova also with about 100 in advantage; only on board 4 with Tugrul were we clearly the favourites. But form on paper doesn’t always hold true in chess either. Many factors contribute to the course of a game. Here it should be highlighted that Vroni and Ardian attend this Gymnasium, so they had a home game in a double sense. There is also a triple sense of home game, though: actually Garching was the home team, which is why Niklas also had White. He delivered a brilliant game that was only decided in a pawn endgame, bishop against knight, in Denis’s favour. This was the last game and drew the greatest interest. A real nail-biting finish.
Chronologically, the match took this course. First Tugrul got into clear difficulties and had to resign. Vroni had an attacking position but was a pawn down, and with Ardian things also looked worse at first. The tide turned, however; Vroni struck and took the point, and Ardian too penetrated his opponent’s position, who had to resign. So, to all our surprise, we were leading 2-1. Niklas actually stood the most balanced of all and at times slightly better, but it wasn’t quite enough for the half point. So after this round we had kept our chance at the championship alive. In the end the board points were to decide. In the second round from 3 p.m., Schaibing played against Augsburg2 and we played against Ergolding2. Whoever won by a bigger margin would become champion. Tugrul decided his game the fastest here, to our relief. After him came Ardian’s half point. Vroni stood down the exchange against Maria Kühne and also clearly worse positionally, but defended doggedly. Niklas stood somewhat better. After Ardian’s half point it was clear that he had to win. I told him this and he made another effort. After a hard fight he won a pawn and pushed his passed pawn forward. It worked, we led 2.5 to 0.5. Vroni fought on and demanded everything of her strong opponent, who had already beaten Denis Werner. She won the exchange back, but in the end could no longer stop the connected passed pawns. Schaibing won 3-1 against Augsburg2, which meant the championship for them. Erwin, the Schaibing team captain, revealed, however, that they would forgo the promotion spot, since two players are dropping out of the U20 team due to their age and would no longer be able to play. We would thus have achieved our goal and managed the straight march up from the Bezirksliga, just like Aschheim. Congratulations to the team!
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The U10 team consisted, as in the photo, of: Kai, Leo, Atreyu, Barbara, Saksham, and Jonas. They played splendidly, winning five times and drawing against the rivals from Tegernheim. Here Jonas’s game was on a knife’s edge; he had fought on a pawn down in a rook endgame. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough for a draw. Against Tegernsee, Leo scored the surprise point against Valentin, and the others also played good games. It was surprising that Saksham, in his appearances, steadily defended board one and lost only once, against Arthur Sitnik. Everyone got to play; Leo and Kai kept their clean sheets, and Atreyu showed himself solid as the youngest and gave up a point only against Tegernsee. Barbara scored 3 out of 6 and Jonas 3.5 out of 5. All in all a convincing team performance and a thoroughly deserved 3rd place. Second place went narrowly to Tegernheim. We are especially looking forward to Berlin and will be spoilt for choice, since only five may travel.